How To Train Your Dragon 4
by kyle11055
Summary: 7 years after Toothless led all dragons to The Hidden World, Hiccup and his family are leading Berk into a bright future. But when an old foe returns and threatens both worlds, its up to Hiccup and Toothless to end this once and for all. (Direct sequel to HTTYD 3)
1. There Were Dragons

**It is here my friends! the HTTYD "4" has finally happened. once again I would like to thank everyone for your support, i really am only making this for you guys. I hope you all really like it. Remember this has spoilers in it! so I advise watching the third film before reading. or at the least KNOW what happens in the third film. but anyway lets get on with How to Train your Dragon 4!**

Chapter 1- "There were dragons"

"Back when i was a boy, we had dragons" Hiccup says while staring out into the open ocean. Him, Astrid and their two kids, Brenda and Jack, have been sailing for hours. Hoping to once again find the world which the dragons now live. Its been just over 7 years since Hiccup and everyone else said goodbye to their dragons. In that time a lot has happened. Berk has been fully rebuilt, with many more people living there then there used to be. Fishlegs and Ruffnut got married a year or so ago, Eret became the new teacher in what used to be dragon training, but is now training on how to use weapons for mostly self defense. Gobber still has yet to find a replacement for him in the forge, he hopes Jack has the same skills Hiccup did when it came to building and fixing things. He can only hope.

"They populated the air and came in many different colors. some blue, some white, red, green orange" He says, "But my best friend, he was the darkest black you could find" Hiccup finishes. Jack wows at the fact that the sky once was exciting to really look at. Hiccup picks up Jack as they start to see a dense mist a mile or so out. Hiccup hopes its the waterfall that leads to that beautiful world. He and Astrid have been talking about sailing here for a while now, but its pretty hard to discuss it when everyone decides to be in earshot when they do. not a single soul aside from their family can know where this world is. Nobody can know, so word never slips out of the location of it.

"We'll find him hunny" Astrid says as she puts a hand on Hiccups shoulders. Brenda hugs tightly on Astrid's leg, and Jack very much enjoys being held by his father because that means he can play with his beard.

The mist keeps slowly approaching, and Hiccup hopes it isn't another misleading landmark. that damn waterfall a few miles back gave him the biggest letdown of his life.

"Dad, why are we going to where the dragons are?" Brenda asks, and Hiccup looks down at her and smiles. "I want you to meet the friend who made my life so amazing" he says. Brenda, their 6 year old daughter, has the hair color of Hiccup but the same blue eyes as her mother. Jack is a 5 year old, but he has Astrid's blonde hair color and Hiccups green eyes. he also has Hiccups nose. Hiccup couldn't imagine having a more beautiful family.

"anyway as I was saying" he states, "me and your mother would go flying almost every day, and try to save the dragons from all the bad people in the world". Astrid sits down on the bench in the front of the boat. Hiccup made this boat almost by himself. Eret and Snotlout helped a lot making it. It is a nice sturdy boat.

"So if you both saved them, why did they all disappear?" Jack asks, sort of tugging on Hiccups beard. He moves jacks hand from his beard, and looks him in the eyes, then back at the other two. "Because most people didnt think like us. most people did not like living with dragons" Hiccup says. Astrid sits up, "And until we can all learn to get along, man and dragon will have to live separate" She finishes.

Hiccup, with Jacks help, lower the anchor to the boat and Astrid puts the sail up. They all stare at the mist, hoping that maybe its what they were hoping for.

A minute passes and nothing.

another minute... nothing

then...

They see a dragons head pop up. Followed by another head, then three more tinier heads. The mist clears a bit and Hiccup sees Toothless again. Jack hops out of Hiccups arms, and both he and Brenda run to the other side of the boat, and Astrid follows them. Hiccup gasps slightly. He finally found him.

Toothless gets up, and flies to the boat before landing on the bow of it. Toothless stares directly at Hiccup in a sort of defensive look to him. his pupils are slit and his posture looks how it did whenever something threatened the big guy.

"H..Hey bud" Hiccup says, "Remember me?". Toothless slowly moves toward him. Both Brenda and Jack try to hide behind their mother. They didn't think that dragons were actually real, but some made up fairy tale to scare them. They are both terrified. Toothless continues moving towards Hiccup until he is a few feet away. He continues to stare at Hiccup dead in the eyes, still looking very defensive. After all, it is his world down that waterfall.

Astrid does her best to grab her two kids and hold them tightly, she is slightly frightened herself. "Its gonna eat daddy" Jack whispers into Astrid's arm. She stares at both Hiccup and Toothless.

Hiccup gulps , as Toothless has yet to change his stance. He thought Toothless was fooling around. But what if he did forget about him? Maybe those years eventually made Toothless forget the time they were together. No, that's impossible he thinks. Hiccup, with all the courage he can muster, reaches his arm out in Toothless's direction and covers his own eyes. Toothless looks at his hand and leans in an inch or two and takes a sniff. His pupils expand and he pounces onto Hiccup and they both fall to the floor of the boat, Hiccup mostly playfully screaming in the process, and Toothless begins licking his face in excitement. Both the kids let out a terrifying scream because they feel the boat under them bouncing slightly. Astrid does her best to assure them that it will be okay.

"Hey Bud i missed you too" Hiccup says as Toothless continues licking him and prancing all around. Astrid looks up and starts laughing. "see? He's not gonna eat your father" She says as she continues laughing. both Brenda and Jack refuse to move even a single muscle, still believing the dragon is mean. "How's the new tail holding up" Hiccup says half seriously, laughing in the process.

"See? they are both friends" Astrid says as finally the kids look towards their father and see the Night Fury jumping all around the front of the boat. Toothless uses his head to push down Hiccup again and gives Hiccup one final big lick and turns his attention to Astrid and the little ones. Toothless turns his head slightly in confusion before looking back at Hiccup. He smiles and turns to Astrid, "Brenda Jack, come here" Hiccup says. they both still look scared and nervous. Jack is still attempting to hide his face once again. "Go on guys, it will be fine" Astrid says as she nudges them to start walking toward Toothless. Brenda holding her arm nervously while Jack manages to cover one of his eyes. Toothless stares at the both of them while they slowly stop right next to Hiccup and only a foot away from Toothless.

"Okay, I want you to both to hold out your arms" Hiccup says as Brenda hesitates to do so.

But after a few moments of hesitation they finally both slowly reach there hands out. Hiccup grabs their wrists, "Okay now hold your hands flat, like this" He says and flattens both of their palms. Brenda just about looks like she is gonna pass out from being scared. Never in her life did she think she would ever see a real life dragon. Of course they never believed her father anyway with all those stories. Like how there was this guy who 'controlled' dragons and was a bad man. That was her favorite story of them all.

"Now let him come to you" Hiccup says and backs away a little. Jack and Brenda have their hands fully extended in front of Toothless. Jack uses his other arm to once again cover his face again. Brenda closes her eyes and turns her head to her side.

After another solid moment of hesitation from Toothless, he slowly leans and presses into the kids palms. After a brief moment Toothless retracts and continues looking on at the family. Both Brenda and Jack Look at Toothless and smile deeply in awestruck. Toothless then darts his head to Hiccup and gives him a playful look, before turning his body around and lowering his back. Toothless roars like some sort of calling, then it goes quiet for a moment. Then Astrid hears that all too familiar squak. Astrid looks toward the mist cloud and sees Stormfly dart from it and heading towards the boat.

She lands and Astrid runs right toward her and gives her a huge hug. "Its been so long girl, i have missed you" She says still holding very tight. It has been so long since she's seen Stormfly, just over seven years in fact. It was really hard getting over the fact Stormfly was no longer there every day, or at all really. The first time she woke up after all the dragons left was the hardest. She woke up and cried for a while. Hiccup came back a little while later and held her tightly as she cried into his shoulders for a long while longer. He tried his best to make her smile during it, saying how happy he is to be with her and how excited he was to rebuild Berk on this new island. And he also mentions how he was one day excited to be a father. That thought, of him being a father, to her future kids, made her finally crack a slight smile. But just getting to see Stormfly, even if only for an hour or so, means the absolute world to her right now.

"Hey Astrid?" Hiccup asks with a cocky smirk to him. "yes?" Astrid replies back$, turning to face Hiccup with a questioned look on her face. Hiccup grabs onto Jack and puts him on Toothless. Jack surprisingly doesn't fight against it. He's probably still in complete awestruck still.

"How about one more little race for old times sake?" Hiccup asks back. Astrid smirks right back at him and nods. She grabs Brenda who has that 'What in the blue hell do you think you're doing' type of facial expression on her as she does it. She still puts her on Stormfly despite the obvious pouting and weird look on her face. Astrid shakes her head. Brenda can be a real brat sometimes. Astrid hops onto Stormfly herself. Before she has time to even prepare, Stormfly takes off.

"AGHHGHHHHHH" Brenda screams as Astrid holds onto her. Brenda holds onto Astrid's arm almost tight enough to break it at this point. Brenda has her eyes clamped shut in fear that she's gonna fall back down if she opens them. Astrid kisses the top of her head as Stormfly continues upward. She thinks Hiccup is probably having trouble getting Jack to get in a position to start flying. Hell, he's probably gonna be even worse than Brenda is right now. Then she hears the Night Fury soar even higher, and all she hears is Jack laughing.

Jack has his hands in the air as Toothless darts even higher than Stormfly did. But Toothless slows down as he prepares to head back down. Hiccup actually lets go of Jack for a split second as they stop going upward and begin heading down, and catches him right as the descent. "Weeeee dad! This is amazing!" Jack says and Hiccup smiles. He's glad his kids can get a feel of what life used to be like. Those years where Berk and Dragons got along was probably the most amazing time in human history.

Toothless and Stormfly go side by side and Hiccup reaches for Brenda's hand. Astrid steals Jack from him and puts him in front of her. Hiccup does the same to Brenda. As they are all getting settled, Hiccup hears Astrid tell Stormfly to go, and they take off again with great speed. That Nadder is pretty fast.

"He won't catch up to us" Jack says playfully. Not that he knew anything about dragons, but he could barely see Hiccup in the distance, flying far behind them. Astrid chuckles, "We can only hope".

They start hearing a noise that sounds like a whistle. They both turn around and in the blink of an eye Hiccup and Toothless rush right past them.

Damn him.

Jack watches with a pouty look to him as his dad gets farther and farther ahead. "Mommy! We have to catch up!". Astrid squeezes him tightly from behind. "Toothless is the fastest dragon I have ever seen, very agile too" She says. Jack looks up at her with a confused look.

"Toothless? what kind of a name is that?" Jack asks laughing slightly about it. "He has retractable teeth, and from what Hiccup said, when he tried feeding him a fish for the first time he didn't see any teeth. Hence the name Toothless" She ends with a laugh. It is funny when she thinks about it. Toothless is kind of an odd name to give a dragon, and she never thought about it until Jack asked. Stormfly, Hookfang, Barf and Belch and even Meatlug all kind of made sense as dragon names. But Toothless? She's just glad she got to name the children.

Astrid eventually catches up to Hiccup as they all turn around and start to head back towards the boat. The flight was a very beautiful one. Something she thought she would have to die before she could do it again. She gives a stone cold glare to Hiccup.

"What?"

"You are a showoff, you know that?" She retorts. Jack sticks his tongue out at him.

"I'm gonna kick your butt later" Brenda says, pointing directly at Jack. He puts his tongue back in his mouth and looks straight again. Brenda was fearless just like Astrid, and punches everyone when she is annoyed just like her mother did. The only thing different about them at this point is the hair color. She even _Snores_ like Astrid!

"There will be no butt kicking tonight!" Hiccup states, "By the time we get back to Berk it will be nightfall" He finishes.

After another short while they all land on the boat and hop off of the dragons. The Light fury and her kids are still sitting around the rock they were on earlier. Someones got to take control while Toothless is gone he assumes.

"Thank you bud, it was great seeing you again" Hiccup says and Toothless purrs at him again. Hiccup turns his head for a split second and Toothless once again pounces on him and licks his face a few times in excitement. "yeah bud.. i'm gonna miss you too". Toothless hops off of him and walks towards the younger ones.

"It was good seeing you! Sorry you have a funny name!" Jack says, and Astrid lightly flicks the back of his head. "Ow". "No being mean to Toothless" Astrid says back.

"You dragons are really cool!" Brenda says as she rubs Toothless's snout.

Astrid hugs Stormfly tightly, "I'm gonna miss you so much girl, take care of yourself". She hears a happy sqwauk coming from Stormfly as she takes a few steps back.

After a moment of staring at one another, Toothless and Stormfly each fly back to the Hidden world. "Are we going to see them anytime soon again? Jack asks and Hiccup shrugs. "I don't know.. maybe".

Hiccup lifts up the anchor and Astrid lowers the sail, and they start heading back to Berk.

The first hour of sailing was silent compared to how it was heading there. Astrid is sitting on the bench on the bow side, Jack fallen asleep on her as she runs her hands through his blond hair, starting to nod off herself. Hiccup is towards the rear on the boat steering it along the path he wrote down on his map while Brenda sits there and watches on.

"Dad?"

"Yes Brenda?"

"How did you meet Toothless?" She asks with a curious look in her eyes. Hiccup sits down next to her and looks up towards the sky. "Well, we all used to fight dragons, and I was never really good at that" he pauses, chuckling to himself. "Even when I was in the phase of wanting to fight, I kind of sucked at it. Anyway, I was always trying to take down a dragon and finally show everyone that I was not the worst viking to ever live. I also wanted to impress your mother over there" He says, pointing over at her, who has completely nodded off with her head tilted backwards.

"You were the worst viking ever?" She asks, in the tone that suggests she doesn't believe that. He laughs and nods, "I was not really good at much, except working the forge and accidentally making almost every situation worse."

"Still doesn't tell me how you met the dragon" Brenda says, flicking his arm while shooting him a glare. Yeah, she was definitely Astrids kid. "I was getting to that miss, I swear you and your mother just enjoy picking on me and Jack" He jokes, poking her nose. This earns him another glare from the little one.

"Alright alright", "I had this contraption that could net a dragon up through the air, and I can't count how many times I thought I shot a Night Fury and could never find any proof" Hiccup stretches his shoulders slightly while turning the boat towards the right. "Then one night, I actually shot one down, which of course nobody believed me. Snotlout made fun of me for it for a while"

"Uncle Snot always pokes fun at you!" She says, giggling.

"Yes, that he does" Hiccup replies. Snotlout always picked on him the most, even after the death of the Red Death dragon. While he didn't pick on him anymore, they just never had a sound friendship. But a few years ago they had actually started getting closer. Hiccup believes Snotlout actually wanted to talk, but Astrid keeps telling him it started out because he wanted to get close with Valka. Eventually though, they became something along the lines of friends, with Snotlout even deciding to risk his life to save Hiccup during a attack on Berk two years ago.

"Your mother didn't seem to believe me either. But I can't confirm that because we did not talk really, if at all" He says, shooting a light glare at her. "Hard to believe when all you guys do is talk and talk and talk and talk and.." Brenda says and Hiccup lightly pushes her and they both shoot a glare at each other before smiling.

"She was never mean to me really, but we never had a chance to get to know each other." Hiccup sighs. She was never rude or anything, but thinking about it now makes them both feel silly. Once they did get to know each other, they fell for one another.

"I went searching for the Night Fury in the woods that day, and after almost giving up I found him, and I thought '_Oh man! I might finally get a date'_" He says, mocking himself and they both laugh. "But then, as I was standing there ready to kill him, I could see the fear in his eyes. I knew I couldn't do it".

"Were you scared too?"

Hiccup nods.

"Is that why you don't hit mommy when she punches your arm. Because you are scared?" She asks, and that earns her a glare of her own. "She does it out of love, very very tough love sometimes, or if she thinks i'm being an idiot" He states simply. Brenda then proceeds to lightly punch Hiccup in his arm, and he stares at her.

"Wanna guess if it's out of love or not?" She challenges, trying to hold her laugh in. "Ooooh that's it young lady" He says and grabs her, starting to tickle her at her sides. She starts laughing and trying her best to wiggle and kick her way free. She accidentally kicks Hiccup right in the kneecap and he lets go, holding it for a few seconds.

"Alright fine, we call it even?" Hiccup asks, holding his hand out and she grabs it, still giggling. "Even". He nods and she hops onto his lap.

"I let him free of the net, and he pinned me against to a rock. I thought I was going to be killed by the dragon I didn't" He says, and she says nothing.

"He instead roared at me and gave me the biggest scare of my life. But I found him days later in a cove, very hungry".

"Let me guess, you tried to feed the danger bird?" She asks, laughing. Danger Bird, that's a new one he thought. Brenda was very creative and very Astrid when it came to expressing herself. If he was being honest, the only thing she has of his is his hair color and his curiosity, if that's even something you can give to someone he thought.

"Yes, I tried to feed the danger bird. After that I started going back every day and started becoming friends"

"Why would he want to be friends if you shot him down?" She still has the same curious look on her from when she asked how they became friends. She asks way too many questions, all the time.

"I guess he was just as curious to me as I was to him" He says, and she yawns. He picks her up and takes her off his lap and onto the bench next to him. "You should get some sleep"

"No! I wanna hear the rest of the story!" Brenda says, standing up and puffing her chest out. He laughs and she deflates, flicking his elbow. "So aggressive, fine, sit back down" He says and she sits, smiling.

"After a while, I realized he couldn't fly on his own, so I built a tail for him that I could operate while I was on his back" He says as he yawns himself. She flicks him again. "Aye, what was that for?" He says, glaring at her playfully.

"No being a sleepyhead just yet" Brenda says. Hiccup sighs and rubs his eyes. "You know, sleep really helps after a nice long flight". She pouts and he sighs again.

"Eventually he was found and my dad was furious. He found out about the dragon nest, and went to destroy it, having Toothless guide him there". "They were not prepared for a huge dragon like that. So I got there, and me and Toothless took it down together. I fell and he.. he saved my life" He says smiling once again. Brenda looks down at his prosthetic leg.

"yes I know , not _all_ of me" She laughs hearing that. "After that, we started flying all around the world" he says. "The world isn't round" Brenda retaliates.

"Fair point. Since then we were always by each others side" He says, a small tear forming in his eye. Brenda looks at him while the tear falls, and rubs it off his cheek. "Then what daddy?" She asks, very intrigued by this story.

"We both had to be leaders for our own people. They weren't safe here, so they went to the Hidden World" He says. "I miss all of them. Hopefully one day they can return and we can all live in peace" He finishes, sniffling. She pats his shoulder and smiles at him. "One day" Brenda says, rubbing her eyes and yawning, before deciding it is best to nap, despite fighting it the whole time. Hiccup steers the ship towards the right more before steadying it and going back to looking up at the skies. He wishes peace were possible. He would love nothing more than to see dragons fly through the air. A sight everyone dearly misses.

He would spend nights trying to discuss how to have everyone understand that dragons are nothing to have a war about. But just as often as he would bring it up, she would always say how as amazing as it would be to make that happen, they can't change everyone just like that. It would have to take time. These talks happened very often while Astrid was pregnant with Brenda, always dreaming about teaching his kids how to fly.

After a few hours Berk comes within eyesight. The night sky lightened up by a full moon. Brenda and Jack are both sleeping. Hiccup fell asleep sometime during the journey home.

Hiccup wakes up panicking, upset he fell asleep steering the boat. But he sees Astrid sitting next to the handle, smiling at him.

"I swear I wonder how anyone stays asleep near you when you snow like a sleeping Thunderdrum" Astrid says giggling. He sits up fully and sees Berk coming closer. Hiccup was never a fan of long boat rides like this, but this one was well worth it.

"How did you sleep?" She asks and he shrugs, "About as well as you possibly can when you have a little girl sleeping next to you that just loves to kick in her sleep sometimes" He jokes and they both laugh lightly. She gets up and sits on his lap, resting her head on his shoulders, and he wraps his arms around her.

"Thank you for helping me plan this, this was amazing" He says and she kisses his cheek. "I've been dreaming of doing this ever since the day you fought Grimmel, and to see the faces of Brenda and Jack while they flew? Sooooo worth it" Astrid finishes and nods. She gets up and nudges Brenda awake, who shoots up and stretches. Hiccup tosses a balled up rag at Jack, who very slowly stretches and sits up.

"Are we home?" Jack asks, slowly walking towards Hiccup. "Pretty much, once we get there make sure you grab you and your sisters bag" He says and Jack nods.

"Why does he have to get my bag?" Brenda asks and Astrid stares at her, "Why do you ask so many questions?" She says, and Brenda glares at her while Astrid smiles.

"Because you have to help your father carry some other stuff" She adds and Brenda perks up. She does love being trusted with things to do. Or if you ask her to keep a secret, she likes that too.

After docking and unloading everything, they all head home and start to unwind. Hiccup takes off his Fur coat and Leather suit. He opens his closet and sees his old Dragon Scale suit. It still barely fits him, as he hasn't grown too much. Just a little more muscle to him then there used to be. He remembers having to wear it during the last raid that happened two years ago. Some vikings tried raiding Berk for supplies. Hiccup wore that suit since it was fireproof and it was pretty much arrow proof as well. He sets his leather suit in his closet and closes it, Now only wearing a green tunic and his pants. Astrid comes in the room and lays down on the bed.

"Just tucked them both in" She says and he nods. It's impressive how fast she gets them both tucked in. Usually Brenda gives Hiccup a hard time about going to bed, believing sleep is for the weak and she is not weak, therefore she does not need sleep.

"Hey Astrid?"

"Yes?" She sits up and pats her hand on the empty half of the bed. He sits down and she wraps her arms around his neck. "I love you" He says, smiling from ear to ear. No matter how many times he has said that to her, it still makes her cheeks pink. If you would have asked her 11 years ago if she would be happily married, have two kids and not having to worry about being scooped up by a dragon she would have probably called you crazy and wrong. But oh how she loved how its turned out since.

"I love you too" She returns, kissing him softly. "But we should get to bed" She adds and he nods in agreement. They both lie down as he wraps his arms around her waist and closing his eyes. He just can't help but smile and think,

What a beautiful and amazing day today was.

...

**Chapter 1 in the books! Thank you everyone for the messages and reviews and all the support. It means a lot. please give any feedback you want about this chapter and the others that follow, I love hearing from everybody. Just so everyone knows, I will be posting a chapter every weekend. If I can manage to write two chapters in one week then I will post two. But With my work schedule I will be realistic and say every weekend. I hope you all enjoyed, I look forward to seeing you all next weekend. -Kyle11055**


	2. Down for the Count

**Hey guys! Welcome back for another chapter! I want to thank everyone for their support for this story! Tons of messages and the reviews you guys always give are what make my day every day. And I have to say, I am very happy that you guys all loved the idea of this story. And the messages about Brenda being such a sassy girl was a fun laugh. Always great to hear from you guys, I hope to see a ton more messages and reviews! Anyway, onto chapter 2.**

**...**

Chapter 2- Down for the count

"I'm dying" Brenda says, coughing aggressively. The last few days have not been great for Berk. A sudden (extremely sudden) sickness was starting to spread around Berk. People began to start coughing badly and heating up to temperatures that shouldn't even be allowed. Some people were throwing up minutes after eating or even drinking anything. Some people even say weird things or see things that aren't there. Brenda was one of the first ones sick. Berk was attempting to put herbs and other things together to possibly cure it, but the healer herself managed to get sick as well.

Because of course she had to.

"You aren't dying, now shhh before you wake your father up" Astrid says, earning her a glare. "Good he can witness my death too". It was very early morning, The sun had barely started to rise. Brenda has been waking up off and on, sometimes feeling like either a furnace or a solid brick of ice. Hiccup was slowly showing signs of the same sickness as well, coughing lightly and feeling warmer than he probably should be.

"You are almost as over dramatic as him I swear" She says playfully, and Brenda attempts to flick her, but gets into a light coughing fit.

"Just stay in bed, i'll be back with some soup" Astrid states and heads to the kitchen. She knew that she was not a great cook, but soup was one of the very few things that people could enjoy. Hiccup stopped letting her cook fish for _years_, always joking how she should be charged with treason on trying to kill the chief. Oh the amount of times he'd been punched for saying that.

Astrid grabs some spice they found a while back, she was never the biggest fan of it. A little too spicy for her, but she figured spice always helped the throat, so it might help with coughing and stuff of the sorts. Right?

She throws it in the soup. A simple soup, some meat, a few veggies they harvested a while back. Some really good broth Hiccup managed to snag from a trader. And the spice that she doesn't like, and also can't think of the name of it. She stirs and hears Brenda coughing some more, then hears her throw her head at the pillow.

"If sickness was a person I would be all in for throwing them off the cliff!" She says, groaning. Brenda had gotten sick once badly before, and it was a new hell for every single person. She was worse than a grumpy woman during their time of the month. She was way more aggressive than she already was when she was sick. Jack learnt to keep his distance when she was sick.

She finishes stirring and puts some of the soup in a bowl and heads to Brenda. "Here you go, this should help a bit" Astrid says as she hands her the bowl.

"Thanks mom" She says with a smile, and Astrid gives her a kiss on the cheek. She walks out of the room and heads to the master room. As she's about to head in she hears a yell and something being thrown. She turns around and sees the bowl on the ground in the hallway. She runs into Brenda's room with a angry expression on her face.

"What the hell was that for?" Astrid says, throwing her arms up in frustration. Brenda looks at her with her tongue sticking out. "That was hoooot, like spicy spicy" She says, drinking some water from the mug she keeps by her bed. Astrid sighs. "The whole point of that was for the spice to help you". Brenda doesn't look too convinced.

"I'm six and even I know that doesn't make sense" Brenda says, laughing a bit until she starts coughing again.

"Try and take a nap you big ol' knucklehead" Astrid says with a smile on her face. Brenda rolls her eyes and nods. She lays back down and closes her eyes. Astrid walks out the room, but keeps the door open in the event she starts coughing up a storm like she did during the night.

She opened the door to her room and walked to the bed, where Hiccup was still sleeping. She sits down on her side of the bed and shakes lightly on Hiccup's shoulder.

"Wakey wakey" She says and he grunts. He slowly opens his eyes and looks into hers. He smiles and she smiles back. "You feeling any better?" She asks and he shakes his head.

"I feel like I fell into the Red Death again" He jokes and they both chuckle.

"Last thing we need is for you to lose your other foot"

"Yeah, I don't think I would be able to handle the jokes Brenda would give me" He chuckles again, and then coughs into his hand. She rests her hand on his shoulder as he sits up slightly.

"I had this weird dream last night" He begins, trying to stretch out his arms. "I was walking on clouds, then all of a sudden I saw my dad". She looks at his confused expression and he sighs. "It kind of felt like he was warning me of something, I don't know how to explain it"

"I think the sickness is finally getting to your head" She says, running fingers through his hair. He coughs again, and winces. The coughing was starting to tear at his throat. Or at least that's exactly how it feels. His head was also still pounding. And he had this really crazy dream about him having a third kid. Like two wasn't already enough. He remembers a talk him and Astrid had years back when they were first trying for a kid. They both agreed two seemed like the perfect number, and anything more than that might be a little too crazy. Jack is not really much to worry about, he is a smart and bright kid. Really likes to watch Gobber repair stuff and doesn't give much of a fuss about anything. But Brenda? She will give a fuss about anything and everything. Boneheaded like both of her parents.

"Maybe, I might actually have to sit this day out. So I might have to make you acting chief" He says, and she glares at him. "You are aware I am the chieftess? I am already part of this circle. Gods you must be really sick" She says, and he shrugs.

"My head does feel like death. Been thinking so many weird things, can't wait to not be sick again" He yawns and tries to sit up fully, but Astrid tries to get him to lay back down again. Last thing she needs is for him to get up and fall since he is ill. He doesn't show it as much as some other people do, but he is weaker and is clearly having the side effect of thinking of weird things.

"Go back to bed" She says and he shakes his head. He pushes her arm out of the way and sits up fully, trying to keep his eyes wide open. She sighs and rests a hand on his cheek and gives him a bright smile.

"You really can stay in bed, it's not like you had anything to do anyway" She says and he sighs. "Fine, but I am not staying in bed all day" He tries to get up, and stumbles a bit when he gets onto his feet. Astrid offers her shoulder to help him walk. He declines, instead using the wall as a guide. He exits the room and heads towards the kitchen area of the house. Their house is a more simple one compared to most Chief's and Chieftess's houses. A living room that is directly connected to the kitchen area. The main entrance is in the kitchen itself. The kitchen leads into a hallway with three rooms, two on the left one on the right. the farthest room is Jack's, the closer one is Brenda's and the main bedroom was on the right. Hiccup designed it, intending on keeping it as simple as it can be, aside from their closet. It was a walk in closet that has their old suits standing up on racks. His old Night Fury scale suit, his Current leather suit, and her old Nadder scale suit. It stopped fitting her once she had Brenda.

Hiccup sits down in his chair in the kitchen table. He has a specific chair he likes, it's the one Stoick built for him when he was old enough to sit at the table. Nothing interesting about it, except for Hiccup's name engraved on the back.

"I made some soup earlier, want some?" Astrid asks and she hears a groan in another room. "Don't eat it, it will kill you faster than this sickness" Brenda yells, and starts groaning again. Hiccup nods and she pours him a bowl and hands it over to him. He looks down at it, and it looks like an ordinary soup to him. He sniffs it and smells all the spice she put in it and he yanks his head backwards.

"Did you just take all the spice we had and throw it in the bowl?" She punches his arm and he chuckles. Hiccup gains the courage and takes a spoonful into his mouth. It is a really spicy soup, and he swallows it quickly. While Astrid was never a great cook, sometimes not even a good one, Hiccup doesn't understand how her cooking skills have no progressed since they started dating twelve years ago. She looks at his expression as he takes another spoonful, obviously struggling to take them down.

"I get it I get it, i'll never touch a spice again" She jokes and he laughs. "If you minus the spice it might not have been half bad", this earns him another light punch on the arm.

"Hey! no bullying the sick and weak" He says, and she rolls her eyes at him. As he starts to attempt to throw another spoonful into his mouth there's a knock on the door. Hiccup goes to get the door but Astrid pushes him back down. She opens the door and sees Spitelout sitting there with a panicked look.

"Good morning Spitelout" She says with a light smile.

"Good morning Chieftess, sorry to bother you during a time like this" He says and she nods. Sure it was never the most fun when people can knocking on the door with concerns, but it was part of the job she married into.

"It's fine, what's the issue? More people reporting sick?" She asks and he shakes his head multiple times. "No, I'm afraid this is actually worse than that could be". She steps out of the doorway and waves him inside. Spitelout takes off his helmet and walks inside to see Hiccup starting to nod off in his chair. Astrid walks towards him and nudges his shoulders, and he slowly gets up from the chair and shakes Spitelout's hand.

"Morning Chief" Spitelout says and Hiccup nods. He gestures Spitelout to sit down, Astrid joining them. "So what is the problem?" She asks and he sighs deeply, staring directly at her.

"This morning I was doing a scouting patrol in my boat like I normally do when it's my shift" He starts. After the raid on Berk a few years back, Hiccup decided it was best to have someone scout around the island via boat every day. Spitelout, Snotlout, Tuffnut and Fishlegs took turns every day. Spitelout and his son very much enjoyed having a so important duty, while Fishlegs never really cared for it. Tuffnut didn't care much about anything, as he was turning into an alcoholic. He used to be easy enough to get along with, But he had a bad break up with this trader girl, and he decided drinking his sorrows away every day. He usually is set out on patrols the most since no one wants to deal with him.

"I see three or four separate things flying, so I go for a closer look and notice they are dragons, Deathgrippers to be exact " Spitelout states and both Astrid and Hiccup look at each other with a puzzled look on their faces.

"While that is threatening enough, I could see someone on top of them. I couldn't see who, but there is only one man who possibly ever controlled a Deathgripper" He finishes. Hiccup stands up with a troubled look on his face. There is no way he survived from that height. No possible way. They were both falling to their death until the Light Fury went after him. Nothing braced or slowed down the fall, yet here is a report of someone being on a Deathgripper. One of the few dragons that could never be tamed by their knowledge. But still.. There is no way he could have survived.

"Are you saying..." Hiccup starts

"What other explanation is there"

"No... no way he survived" Hiccup states and you can see the emotion of hatred and anger coming out of his face. His eyes water up in anger.

"Even if it isn't him we should treat it like it is him. Like the threat he is" Spitelout says and Hiccup nods slowly.

"I don't feel threatened!" Brenda says, coming out of her room and walking towards them. "I'll take down whoever it is with my bare h-" She falls down face first onto the floor mid sentence, and sighs rather loudly. Astrid can't help but laugh.

"I told you to stay in bed you little knucklehead" Astrid says, and Brenda shoots her head up just so she can show how much her eyes are rolling. Astrid walks over to her and helps her get back into bed.

"Thank you Spitelout, I'll do whatever I can to learn more" He says and Spitelout says his goodbyes, and heads back out. Hiccup heads back into his room and sits down on the bed. He sees his Black Suit he wore on that fateful day. It still has the rip on the right shoulder, and Hiccup never bothered to fix the wings on it. He sits there staring at it, thinking to himself how it would even be possible to survive such a high fall. Sure it might not be completely impossible, if maybe you go in feet first... okay, it still sounds completely impossible still. He would have to have broken every bone and still somehow survived.

Hiccup coughs and his head starts pounding, he decides it's better to sleep this off some more instead of pondering how impossible it really is that he survived. He was just a normal man after all. Hiccup closes his eyes and slowly nods off.

..

The next two days can be called a disaster. Hiccup's sickness progressed and he is officially bedridden, even though he still fails to realize it. He woke up in the middle of the night sweating and screaming at the corner, before peacefully drifting back off. Astrid sat there for a while, still startled from it. He has been burning up a lot and has failed to keep almost all of his food down.

Astrid has been trying to get the healthy people together to possibly make a medicine for this, but they haven't gotten far at all. Most people are panicked for the people who are currently ill. With almost a fourth of Berk down in their beds coughing, it's hard not to blame them. Astrid still is trying her best to get people to think with their heads. A medicine after all, would get rid of the problem.

Brenda has somehow actually gotten better than she was a few days ago. She went from coughing fairly often, having bad balance and having some nausea to pretty much being able to sit there silently. She doesn't really cough much, if at all. It does amaze Astrid slightly, so much so that she tried asking Brenda what she has been doing, and all she says is "Scaring the sick away". Such a stubborn girl. At least Jack isn't sick.

Jack is also trying to help his mother get people together, even though most people will not listen to a five year old, He at least tries.

Astrid heads over to the healers house and knocks on the door. She hears a grunt and after a few moments the door opens. The healer definitely looks sick, but not nearly as bad as some of the other people.

"Oh, hello Chieftess" The healer says, gesturing Astrid to some inside. She walks in and the healer closes the door behind her. Astrid hears a light cough coming from her, still fighting the same sickness.

"Any luck with creating medicine?" She asks and the other woman sighs and sits down on the chair at her desk. She pulls out a few sheets of paper, with different herbs, fruits and leaves that have been ingredients to other medicines.

"I have been trying my hardest, I might actually be getting closer than I thought I would" She chuckles and grabs her mug of water, "I guess having the sickness myself helps in finding out something" She finishes. Astrid sighs, while getting close to a medicine is good news, she was hoping it was all done and she could just give it around like the fellow in the great hall passes around mead.

Because she's tired of hearing complaints of people being sick.

She gets it.

People are sick. What else is new?

"But in the meantime I do have this" She hands Astrid a mug filled halfway to the top with some water and a few different leaves. "What is this?" Astrid asks and the older woman gets up and stretches her shoulders out while still facing Astrid.

"It's something to battle the cough part of the sickness" She states. "It should work, If not, maybe get some honey. But I need more time to finish the medicine for the other symptoms. A few days at most" Astrid nods and gets up to leave. They shake hands and Astrid starts walking back to the house.

No way Berk can go a few more days like this. Astrid doesn't mind being a Chieftess, it has been a great time. But the nonstop knocking on her door about people being sick is no way to enjoy an afternoon. Hiccup is way better at dealing with annoyances like this. He at least has total patience. So of course he gets sick so she has to deal with it all. She sighs and opens the door to the house and sees Jack sitting there with Brenda at the kitchen table, playing a type of 'Board game' Fishlegs invented a year or so ago.

"Yay I win again" Jack says proudly, throwing his arms up in victory. Jack looks back at his sister, who is glaring holes right through him. "You got lucky again" She pouts and Jack laughs, "Sissy I think winning three times in a row is not luck" He says and she stands up and walks over to him. She punches his arm, "I told you not to call me sissy!" She says, raising her voice. Jack holds his arm, while Astrid comes from behind and flicks Brenda in the back of her head.

"Play nice" She says as they both glare at each other, Astrid relents and gives her a cheeky smile before walking off. Brenda and Jack restart the game again and start playing once more. Brenda knew she had to win this one, she lost three times already, and giving Jack all these bragging rights would not go down easily for her. While he was a good kid, he enjoyed being proud and bragging a little bit. The game Fishlegs came up with was essentially about protecting the "King" dragon. You had all these little pieces to protect it. The king dragon was what Fishlegs called a "Bewilderbeast" which was apparently a very huge dragon who probably did not need a queen to protect it.

The board of the game itself was a board with a bunch of colored squares, half white half black. The queen could pretty much move wherever it wanted. Up, down, sideways, diagonal, backwards. Losing that piece was very bad. Then you had "Zipplebacks" That could only move in "L" patterns. They were hard to use but very helpful. The "Nadder" Pieces can only move in a diagonal direction on their own color. "Gronkles" Could only move in straight lines, but can go as far or as short as they want. The last pieces were the babies, which were placed in front of the special pieces. They were pretty useless in the beginning. They can only move one step at a time and only frontwards. But getting them to the other side meant getting another Special piece.

Jack became very good at the game after he learned how to play. Beating Brenda at almost every single game of it.

Astrid opens the door to her room and sees Hiccup sitting upright for the first time in over a day. He is actually dressed too which is weird.

"Goodmorning milady" Hiccup says as Astrid walks in. He still doesn't look too good, looks more pale than she is used to seeing. His hair is all messed up as well, morning bedhead was always a disaster for him. He wasn't much of a fan at brushing it sometimes either, which would make her annoyed if he went outside the house like that.

"Hey there sleepyhead, drink this" She says holding the cup in front of her. He grabs it and takes a sniff of the mysterious liquid. Smells rather harsh. He looks at Astrid with a sad look.

"Drink it"

"It smells bad"

"I mean it Haddock" She says, crossing her arms. He sighs and takes a sip. It tastes exactly how it smelled, nice and harsh and bad. He puts the cup down onto his lap and stares at it.

"Drink it all"

"Yes mom" He says laughing, and she balls her hand in a fist and glares at him. He blows her a sarcastic kiss to her before taking another sip. The second sip was just as bad as the first one. He reluctantly chugs the rest of it, gagging slightly after it all went down his throat. He puts the mug down and looks at Astrid. She smiles and punches his arm with the fist she already had balled up.

"Remember what I said last time about calling me mom?" She says and he starts laughing again. She punches him again and crosses her arms.

"You know, for someone nearing thirty you have a habit of acting like you are twelve" She says and he shrugs his shoulders. "And for someone who is supposed to take care of her sick husband you really do a good job at abusing him" He says, continuing his laugh. He starts going into a coughing fit, and she laughs.

"That's what you get hun" She finishes and he glares at her. He stands up, and actually manages to keep his balance for the most part. He walks to the kitchen and sees the two kids playing. Brenda only has a nadder, two babies and the Bewilderbeast piece, while Jack has mostly every single piece.

"Brenda I told you I would help you win" Hiccup says and she ignores him, trying to focus on how to come back down this much. Hiccup shakes his head and walks out the door. It's the first time he had been outside in days, and there's not that many outside like there usually is. He walks down the pathway towards the Great Hall. Astrid catches up to them and they head in there together.

The Hall is mostly empty, except for the healer and Gobber sitting there at a table. Gobber turns around and sees Hiccup and Astrid and gets up.

"Well look who it is, I almost thought you fell off the cliffside" Gobber says, giving Hiccup a one handed hug. Hiccup chuckles and takes a step back. Hiccup looks over to the woman over there.

"Hey Mable, any luck on the cure for this? been kicking my ass for days" He says and she gets up with a bottle in her hands. "I think so. Astrid came by this morning, and I had a bright idea in my head. Take the coughing medicine, add a few more herbs, and a single mint leaf and thought that might help" Mable says and they all look at her.

"Well, the mint usually helps with nausea, the herbs help with light headiness, and the coughing medicine is obviously for coughing" She chuckles to herself. "I was going to find someone to try it, but looks like you are sick Chief, so here you go" She hands over the bottle, and Hiccup sees Astrid smirking at him. He takes a sniff of it and it smells way worse than the drink Astrid gave him.

"Are these all supposed to be mixed together?" He asks and Mable shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know, I never had to worry about making something like this". Hiccup frowns and takes a deep breath, and chugs the whole thing. He drinks it and starts gagging again. That had to be worse than the "Yak-Nog" Astrid made during the first three Snoggletogs they spent together. He thought drinks couldn't get worse than that, but evidently he was wrong.

"Come back later on today and tell me if it works, if it does I'll make the rest and hand it out as needed" She says and Hiccup nods and gives her a salute. Hiccup walks over to the main Table he sits at when he is discussing different plans and such. He sits down and opens the drawer where he keeps a lot of the information down at and pulls a huge book out. He started writing everything that happens and everything they know about every single threat or possible problem. He flickers to page three where it was titled "Grimmel".

_Page 3: Grimmel _

_Huge threat._

_Tried killing Toothless. Very smart, thinks a few steps ahead. Very hard to outsmart. Has Deathgrippers by his side, the only dragon thought to be capable of defeating a Night Fury one on one. Toothless took down four with new ability that he had no interest in showing beforehand. Has a crossbow that shoots darts that will put anything to sleep. Has obsession with killing Night Furies (a little too much?). _

_Enjoys the hunt. Likes taking his time. _

_Killed after falling into water. No need to worry anymore. _

Hiccup realizes that he didn't write a whole lot, probably should have thought of adding detail to it. He closes the book and puts it away. The Hall now empty as Gobber and them have left already. He sits there a while longer and thinks to himself. _No way Grimmel survived_ is what he keeps telling himself. A fall that high would surely be fatal.

But he can't help but think of what might happen if he had survived.

...

_"You thought I was dead huh Chief?" A strange voice says. Hiccup looks around and sees nothing but darkness around him. He holds his arms out and can't even see his own hand. He panics and runs forward._

_"Remember what I said? You have never seen Anything like me" He remembers this voice... But no... he fell into the water... from that height... surely would have been fatal... surely_

_"I'll be back dear Hiccup" Hiccup knows of this voice. This is a trick._

_"You don't scare me" Hiccup shouts, into the darkness. _

_"Oh I don't believe that for a second Chief. All I want to say is... Wake Up and see the truth!" The voice shouts and Hiccup feels himself being tugged, sending into a panic._

_He screams_

_..._

"Wake up" Astrid says shaking Hiccup, who jolts up with sweat on his forehead. He looks around frantically and sees a very dimly lit Hall with Astrid standing right next to him. He calms his breathing and looks at her.

"You somehow managed to fall asleep at the table" Astrid states and he sighs in relief. He stands up and stretches himself out.

"Yeah, I think I had a nightmare" He says and Astrid looks at him with a curious look. They start walking out of the Hall, and Hiccup sees the beautiful night sky with all the stars shining during the night. The moon is almost a full moon so it isn't very hard to see. They make their way back to the house.

"I had a nightmare about Grimmel, I mean, what if he did survive?" Astrid looks at him and and gives him a reassuring smile. "Even if he did survive, we are more well prepared for him should he ever come back. Not to mention that he is a older guy now and you are... well you!" She says, playfully nudging his sides. It has come to his attention that he feels a lot better than he did earlier in the day. The medicine seemingly taking full effect.

"You know, that medicine Mable gave me actually worked" Hiccup says and Astrid nods in agreement. "We already started giving it out, so that should hopefully solve the problem with that" She finishes and they both head inside. Both Brenda and Jack fell asleep at the table. They started keeping track of how many games each of them won. Jack's name had eight marks under it, Brenda's had none. Such a successful night for her it seems. Hiccup picks up Jack and Astrid picks up Brenda and they carry them to their rooms.

Neither of the kids make any sign of waking up, both probably tiring themselves out by playing that board game all day. Hiccup always had fun playing against Jack, Astrid always tried but never got into it like the other three. She beat Brenda a few times in it and even beat Hiccup once, but she hasn't really played since.

They both head back to their room and unwind as they have come to making a routine of. They both took off their clothes and put on the clothes they liked sleeping with, except Hiccup decided against wearing a shirt. Not that Astrid ever complains, she always loves getting a good look at him. The last few years have been especially good to him. Under all those leather vests and leather arm guards he wears is a very toned body. He isn't super skinny anymore, and he has very defined arms. His chest tighter than it used to be even if he isn't as hulky as most Chiefs are. Hiccup is almost positive he is the smallest Chief to ever exist.

Before Astrid lays down she catches something in the corner of her eye. She sees a paper with two days of next circled and written in all capitals. saying "Haddock Camping night" She forgot all about it. They made a tradition to go camping twice a year for only a night at the eastern part of the island. She can't help but smile, but decides on telling Hiccup about it in the morning. She lays down next to him and drifts off.

Two days pass by and a lot of people on Berk were actually feeling better. Most of them could at least get out of bed and some even able to go outside. Hiccup has had a near full recovery and Brenda has been healthy for the last two days as well. Mable is a miracle worker sometimes.

"So dad are we really going camping again?!" Jack asks very excited. Hiccup looks down towards him and smiles.

"Next week we are" Hiccup replies and all he hears is a groan coming from Brenda.

"Why must I leave my comfortable bed for a night!"

"Because I said so" Astrid says.

"But I wan-"

"Because. I. Said. So" Hiccup chuckles at the little argument.

"Enough, everybody eat your breakfast we can talk about this later" Hiccup states and Brenda sticks her tongue at him.

The Haddock Camping trip always is a adventure in many ways.

Hiccup just hopes it all goes well.

...

**Chapter 2 in the books! Not really much surprising about this chapter. Next chapter however, we got some real bacon being cooked in there. Huge moment coming next chapter everybody! And I'll also be introducing pretty much every other character that hasn't been in the first two chapters, so there's that as well. Thank you all for reading, you guys are all very amazing! Something I am going to start doing from now on is give the next chapters title away in this paragraph I always write. Maybe that will give you some general idea of what could happen? It sounds good to me. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to PM or Review, but other than that I will see you next time!**

**Coming next week, Chapter 3- "The Fishlegs Dilemma" **


	3. The Fishlegs Dilemma

**Hello again, time for another chapter. Thank you all for your support once again. Chapter two wasn't the most eventful but you all seemed to love it, and that's all that matters. Got some big things happening in this chapter. Or well, introducing some more characters into the fold. There will also be a poll down below for you guys! So make sure you guys all cast your vote one way or another. Anyway onto the story!**

...

Chapter 3- The Fishlegs Dilemma

"Dad wake up wake up, it's camping day!" Jack says, jumping onto Hiccup, who jolts awake. He chuckles and moves Jack to the other side of the bed. It was finally the day they do the Haddock camping night. The one night both Hiccup and Astrid can get away from their duties, but only get to do so for one night. Valka takes place as acting Chieftess on these days, and Hiccup is nice enough to make sure she really doesn't have to do much. He will for the most part complete every single task ahead so all she has to do is carry the title of the job around and make sure no one gets hurt.

Hiccup stretching and gets up, feeling completely healthy. A week ago he was pretty much bedridden, now he was back to his usual self, and it felt amazing. Most of Berk was back to full health, while a few Berkians still have a slight cough or some sort of dizziness. Mable earned a week vacation after becoming a miracle worker last week. She decided on going down south to a small island chain that has tons of merchants. Hiccup usually goes down there to order the goods that Berk needs and can't get themselves. Very nice vacation spot during the summer months as well.

Jack has himself packed with everything he needs and then some. He always loved the camping trip. He enjoyed being outside and learning new things. Plus the woodlands of Berk was quite the sight to walk around in. He would always try to get a leaf of every single color in a single day. He has never successfully completed the task.

Brenda on the other hand, completely hates the camping trip. She enjoys the being outside part of it, But she hates the fact she has to sleep in a tent on the ground when a comfy bed is waiting for her at home. If they went on a long hike for a whole day, but came back afterwards for the night she'd enjoy herself. But the ground isn't something she enjoys sleeping on.

"What if I just stay here and watch the house while you guys go?" Brenda asks and Hiccup shakes his head. "You are going" They both shoot glares at each other. _Why Camping?_ Brenda has asked herself ever since she could talk. Out of all the things they could do as a family, why camping?

Jack is in the attic of their house, trying to find a hat he swore he hid up here not too long ago. Brenda tried taking it from him to make him admit a secret he was hiding. He instead ran away and hid it in the attic. He completely forgot about it till today.

The attic was rather large, one huge room with tons of storage in it. The attic was a fun place to play hide and seek, as all the crates, bags and things lazily thrown around made hiding there fairly easy. Jack towards the back and sees a chest labeled "Toothless's Tails". With a little effort he manages to open it and looks inside. There were 5 different colored tails. One was red with a white face on the end of it. One was purple with black lines around it. There was a full yellow and a full green one. The last one was a leather one that had some gears on it. The gears were broken and it seemed like it wouldn't do whatever its job was anymore. Jack picks up the red one and inspects it. He hears someone approach him and turns his head around.

"It's okay bud, just me" Hiccup walks over to him and rests on one knee. He notices Jack staring at the tails he made for Toothless many years ago.

"Why did you make these"

"Toothless needed them to fly" Hiccup looks through the crate himself and sees the weird ones he made. He never used any of them except the red one. And the broken one, When Toothless broke it during their first Snoggletog together.

"But why so many?" Jack turns around and looks at Hiccup, who is still staring into the box. Why did he still have these in here? He did keep some of the things that he used with Toothless. He kept both his Scale suit and the old Leather wing suit. He kept the saddle as a memory, and all the papers he had about making Toothless a tail, in the event he needed a new one.

"We made a sport called dragon racing, and I didn't know what colors to use, so i experimented. I settled with keeping the red one" Hiccup says and Jack puts back the one he was holding.

"Hey dad?"

Hiccup looks down at him again. "Yes Jack?"

"Do you miss Toothless?" Jack asks and Hiccup sits down on the floor and lets out a sigh.

"All the time. I miss the days of having them all around. Especially when we could go on morning flights and adventure out, exploring the world. But he is where he belongs" He stands up and picks up Jack with him. "And I have a village to protect, as well as a family to be there for" Hiccup kisses Jacks forehead and takes them both downstairs.

"Oh there you are" Astrid says and Hiccup rolls his eyes. He puts Jack down and he goes into his room. "He was looking at the tails I made for Toothless back when dragon racing first became a thing" They both share a laugh.

"Oh gods that was so long ago. I remember after a while it was pretty much only me and Ruffnutt scoring since you guys gave us all the sheep" Hiccup smirks at her and gives her a peck on the lips.

"I didn't want to win every race, had to let you win a few to show I cared" He says and it earns him the usual, a solid balled up fist ramming right into his shoulder. Hiccup physically couldn't count how many times he has been hit by Astrid. It used to sting, but now it doesn't bother him at all. After so many years dealing with her kind of affection, it would cause anyone to toughen up.

"It was annoying sometimes though, we never really had many races where everyone was scoring for themselves" Astrid grabs her blanket and stuffs it in the bag she is bringing on the trip.

"That's what happens when you have two men fighting for the same lady" Hiccup says in return as he grabs the tent. The tent is a rather large one, folded up and held together by some thick string. It holds all four of them soundly and is a darker green, so it blends in a bit better in case any wild animal tries snooping around while they are sleeping.

"I do miss the sport though. Especially when you weren't around so I could win all the time" She chuckles. Hiccup moves closer and kisses her forehead. She smiles and runs a hand through his beard. She loved his beard. She hopes he doesn't try growing anything like Stoick had. But the short beard fit him so well, Only two ish inches in length, and a beautiful Brown color to go with it. She was surprised by how quickly he was able to grow a full one.

"I miss it too" He says simply, giving her a smile of his own.

"Wheres my axe?!" Brenda yells, and both Hiccup and Astrid can hear her throwing things around in her room. A year ago, Brenda asked for a axe like Astrid's. After watching her mother go out every now and then and throw it around, Brenda decided she wanted one of her own. So for her fifth birthday, Hiccup personally made her a smaller version of Astrid's. Small enough that she can throw it as efficiently as Astrid could throw hers. And credit to Brenda, she was just as good at using a weapon as her mother.

"You gave it to Uncle Gobber to sharpen" Jack yells at her. They all hear a loud groan coming from Brenda's room, and hears something being thrown at the wall.

"How could I have forgotten that?" They hear her moving around a lot, like she is pacing around her room. Just like Hiccup does every single time he is nervous or has a long speech to give out. Hiccup walks into her room and sees her standing in the middle of it, with a lot of her stuff on the ground before her.

"Would you calm down you big crybaby. Clean all this up and you can go to the forge and check on your axe" he says and she gives a slow nod.

"Can I go to the forge?" Jack asks. "Sure go ahead"

Jack runs out the door and starts heading to the forge. He always liked going there and watching Gobber fix things. Sometimes he would get lucky when he went down, and he'd see Gobber making a new weapon or contraption. Gobber would also tell him stories about everything that has happened. How Hiccup was arguably better in the forge than anyone he ever met. And how Hiccup would always stare at Astrid whenever she was on this thing called 'fire patrol'. Whatever that meant. Gobber told Jack about all the things Hiccup made during his time. From all the weapons that were so amazing yet he could never make them work, to all the tails and saddles he made for Toothless. All these things called 'Dragon Eyes' and how he searched for lenses and such, Jack never understood that one.

I mean, for someone who _Loved_ dragons, why would he take a dragon's eye? Gobber said it wasn't like that, but how else could it be? Dragon eye.

Jack approaches the forge and sees Gobber with Brenda's axe, sharpening it like he usually does once or twice a month.

"Hey Uncle Gobber!"

"Aye, how you doin Jack?" Gobber stops sharpening the axe and sits down, turning his attention to Jack. Jack sits down in the chair in front of him, keeping a wide smile to him.

"What are you doing today?" He asks and Gobber gets up and gestures him to follow. Gobber points to the bin that has a few axe's and a few swords needing some sharpening. That's usually all he did most days was sharpen things for people. Not really many things needed to be made in the forge anymore. Viking's didn't lose as many swords like they used to. And since there are no more dragons, no saddles or anything of the sort needed to be made either.

"Another boring day in the ol' forge" the older viking said. "Can I help?" Jack would always ask this question every time he came in the forge. Gobber always hates telling the boy no, as he has love for wanting to work in the forge.

Gods Gobber hopes Hiccup picks Brenda as his heir, so finally Gobber could retire.

"Is my axe done yet?" Brenda asks as she approaches them both. Her hair in a very messy braid, like she slept in them. She also has on her shirt she wears when she goes to sleep, a plain grey one with a black tint on the bottom hem of the shirt.

Gobber gestures to the axe sitting on the edge of the table, "Been done". Brenda gives him a smile and runs to grab the axe. She gives it a quick inspection like she always does. Making sure it won't break in her hands, or to make sure it's as sharp as it needs to be. "Thank you!" She says as she runs off with it. Gobber heads back to sharpening another sword.

"Best you head back to yer family, got the camping trip today" He says and Jack sighs before hopping onto the ground, giving the old viking a tiny hug, and scampering off. Gobber smiles and continues his work.

...

"I have very important news!" Hiccup and Astrid both turn their heads, and see none other than Fishlegs behind them. In the last few years he grew a much fuller mustache, something like Gobber used to have. He always tries braiding the ends but it doesn't work out too well. He instead ties it down in multiple spots so it still looks neat.

Hiccup finishes packing his bag and pulls it over his shoulder.

"What's the news?" Hiccup asks and Fishlegs tries his best to hold in his excitement. Astrid grabs her bag and the tent and yells for the kids to get out here so they can leave.

"Ruffnut's pregnant!" Fishlegs announces, and both Hiccup and Astrid's jaws drop. While they knew Fishlegs always wanted to have kids, as many as he could possibly manage, everyone believed Ruffnut never wanted to be a mother. Tuffnut always said he would never have a kid no matter what happens in life, and Ruffnut always seem to agree with him. Maybe Fishlegs changed her mind somehow.

"Uh- well, congrats my friend" Hiccup says, and Fishlegs grabs them both and gives them a hug. He squeezes tightly, and after a few long moments lets them both go, with Astrid having a very confused but happy look on her.

"I am definitely going to need advice on managing a kid" They all look at Brenda, who is out in the kitchen area. She is trying to close her bag that won't close since it is too full. If she would just take her axe out of it. She eventually loses her temper and starts kicking the bag in frustration.

"yeah we still don't know how to do that" The three of them laugh.

"But if you want, you and Ruff can tag along with us" Astrid suggests and Hiccup nods, "Maybe we can tell you a couple things about babies"

"Ruffnut probably can't, but i'll walk with you guys" Fishlegs says as they all start heading out. The five of them start heading towards the new sheep stables that are on the eastern part of the village. The Haddock house is located towards the middle of everything, right near the forge and Great Hall. The statue of Stoick is in front of the Great Hall as well.

They pass the sheep stables and see Snotlout trying to talk to Valka, who for the most part ignores him. After Astrid and Hiccup started dating, and Ruffnut refused him at every turn, he started getting desperate to find a date. He started getting a huge crush on Valka, and Valka had some feeling for him as well. But Valka decided it was best for her to remain a widow as Stoick once did for twenty years. That doesn't stop him from trying to change her mind however. Thankfully however, Snotlout is pretty easy to talk to otherwise. He and Hiccup became closer friends as the years went on. So much so that if Hiccup, Astrid and Valka all died, Snotlout would become Chief until one of Hiccups kids were old enough to take the job. Snotlout takes that to heart.

Past all the sheep is a trail that leads into the woods. The Eastern woods is the least explored area of the entire island. The Southern part has been explored the most, and they found tons of resources on that part. Lots of iron especially. They live on the Northern part of the island, with the Northern cliffside being at the end of the village. They explored West a couple of times as well, but there hasn't been much there except for the occasional fruit tree. And there has been expeditions to go East but almost every time something bad happens. They tried going east to find a tree that bears fruit that can help with headaches. They sent five people out to explore and only three returned.

Hiccup knows of the dangers, and the danger is mostly why he has chosen to go east the last three camping trips. The dirt path they are walking on is a simple one with little turns. Surrounded by trees and lots of leaves on the ground.

"Dad how far are we gonna go this time?" Jack asks very excitedly. Jack is walking in front of everyone, trying his best to 'lead' everyone. Hiccup is not far behind him, and Brenda is lagging behind everyone.

"I think we should try going on the left trail this time when we get to the fork" Astrid says and Hiccup nods in agreement. "Yay new adventure!" Jack pulls out his little dagger and swings it at a little branch hanging down. Jack himself made that dagger, with Gobber's help of course. It wasn't very even or balanced but Jack loved it more than anything.

"So what did you two do when you found out she was pregnant for the first time?" Fishlegs asks as he starts eating a apple he had been carrying in his front pouch.

"Well I can tell you Astrid certainly picked a bad time to tell me. I was in the middle of planning a boat trip to the Bog Isles to meet up with Camicazi for a discussion" Hiccup ducks under a branch and readjusts the bag he is carrying on his back, "Then all of a sudden Astrid comes in screaming saying, 'oh gods Hiccup oh gods! i am pregnant oh gods oh gods!'" Astrid glares at him.

"Let's not forget Hiccup over here started crying in joy afterwards" She snickers.

"Well how else am I supposed to react?" They all laugh. "What was your first reaction Fish?" Hiccup asks and Fishleg's face turn a light red.

"Pretty much the same as Hiccup's, except I was very surprised" He states, throwing the core far into the treeline. "I mean, I was always hoping for one, but I didn't think we would get one so soon"

"Well, welcome to parenthood, such a blessing, mostly" Astrid says, gesturing towards Brenda who is staring at the ground while walking. She hasn't really lifted her head much since they started walking. She loves the outdoors, but ask her to sleep in it then all of a sudden she is I'm Grumpy now.

They make the turn to the left trail that was at the fork. The last two times they had gone to the right trail that goes more inland. The left trail went back towards the waterline.

The next few minutes were pretty silent, everyone observing the new environment, even Brenda finally. Jack, still leading the pack, notices something shiny on the ground.

"Hey mom look! Shiny" Jack walks towards the object and starts to reach for it. Astrid turns her attention to jack, and notices a rope around the shiny object

"JACK N-" She yells as he grabs and yanks up the shiny silver piece. They hear a clicking noise, and a rope wraps around Jacks wrist and tightens, before pulling him upwards many feet above them. Another clicking noise is heard, and a dart shoots towards Jack and misses him by a few inches. The dart impales into a tree next to him.

"Mom! Dad! Help me" Jack cries out, water streaming down his face. Hiccup throws down his bag and heads towards the tree next to Jack and tries to figure a way to climb up it. Astrid gets under Jack in the event he slips and falls.

"Sissy!" Jack yells, and Brenda drops her bag also and starts throwing her things out, trying to get to her axe. She grabs it out of the bag and prepares to throw it.

"Brenda please don't hit me" More tears fall down his face in terror.

"Stay still" She commands and he listens. She throws the axe and it cuts the rope before impaling into another tree. Jack starts falling and screaming, but Astrid manages to catch him. She holds him tightly as he continues to cry into her shoulder.

"It's okay it's okay" Astrid says, running her fingers through his blond hair. Hiccup climbs up the tree a bit and grabs the dart. He lets himself fall and lands perfectly on his feet. Brenda meanwhile, goes and retrieves her axe herself.

Hiccup inspects the dart, and recognizes the design of it, but can't seem to remember who's it was. Astrid looks at Hiccup, then turns her attention to the dart in his hand.

"That-, That dart looks like the one Grimmel used on both Toothless and the Light Fury" Astrid states and Hiccup instantly makes the connection. This was one of Grimmel's traps, back when he was trying to take Toothless. But that was when they were on the old island. They moved to this island after they met Grimmel.

"Maybe he left a few traps right before that big battle" Fishlegs suggests, sitting on one knee next to Astrid, who is still holding Jack tight.

"His wrist is pretty bruised up, might wanna have that looked at my friend" Fishlegs says, standing up and looking at Hiccup.

"Lets get back to Berk and figure this out" Hiccup commands, and they all get up to start heading home. Hiccup takes Jack from Astrid and puts him on his shoulders.

...

That night was a rather quiet night. They all returned home, Astrid took care of Jack's wounds since Mable was still on her vacation. Brenda was sitting with Jack most of the night as well. Hiccup however, went directly to the cliff side pier that was built there a year ago. He has pretty much been there ever since they got back. He was probably just trying to get his thoughts together Astrid would think to herself.

Hiccup continues to stare out into the water line, letting his thoughts roam all around his head. It was a good place to sit and think for a while, since the view was very beautiful. The ocean expanding and no land to be seen from there. Hiccup sighs and rests his head in his own hand.

"Haven't seen you this bothered in years" Hiccup turns his head around and sees Snotlout approach and stand next to him, looking out into the same ocean Hiccup has for the last few hours.

"Well I also haven't had a reason to, not since the raid" Hiccup sighs, rubbing his eyes roughly. Snotlout takes off his helmet and lets out a sigh himself.

"It was probably just a old trap Hiccup, probably nothing to worry about" Hiccup turns his attention to the viking next to him. "That was also a little too small to be able to trap a dragon. And the dart would have likely hit the wing of a dragon if it got snarled up. It barely missed Jack's head" Hiccup throws his arms up in the air in frustration.

"So what you're saying is-"

"Yes, I am saying that was a trap for a person, not a dragon" Hiccup retorts. He puts his head down and sighs again. Snotlout puts his hand on Hiccup's shoulder.

"It's still probably a older trap, maybe even from the raid" Snotlout suggests and Hiccup shakes his head.

"Only one person makes this kind of dart Snotlout"

"Okay fair enough, then lets go find his ass and do something about it" Snotlout says, puffing his chest out slightly. After all these years of actually growing up, Snotlout still believed everything could be solved with hitting it until it either was defeated or started working again. He has yet to grow up in the 'reason' department it seems.

"Because finding someone who should be dead and might even be dead is very easy. Snotlout he fell into the ocean" Hiccup sighed, "Gods know if he even survived. If he did we wouldn't have any idea of where to look" He finishes. How could Grimmel even survive a fall that high? They were hundreds of feet above the water, a fall that high surely would have killed him. Even if he somehow survived, he most likely had many broken bones that killed him eventually anyway. Or the water knocked him out and he drowned. It just doesn't make sense.

"Well Chief, you have to do something about it. And sitting here staring into an ocean has yet to solve any of your problems" Snotlout says, stretching himself out. Hiccup rolls his eyes, but gives a small smile to Snotlout.

"Thanks for the not so terrible talk Snotlout" Hiccup gives a salute to Snotlout and he starts heading home. Berk very quiet tonight, no one really outside. It was a peaceful walk home. Hiccup opens the door and sees Brenda on the kitchen table with a map of the land in front of her. A big X is placed roughly where that trap was, and a red dotted circle around it.

"Whatcha doing there?" Hiccup asks as he sits down in the chair next to her, she doesn't move her glare from the map, inspecting it thoroughly.

"Trying to find out who placed it" She says simply, still not moving her eyes from the map. She marks another few X's with black ink. "No one would leave a trap that simple unguarded. Must have been a simple rig" She puts down another X. Hiccup stares at the map himself.

"You know, sometime you think way smarter than a six year old" Hiccup chuckles to himself, and he can feel the glare Brenda is giving to the map, intended for him. She was very smart for her age, but not in the way Hiccup would ever have imagined. She was great at planning battle things, and outsmarting her way around situations. For being able to do that at six, was fairly impressive.

"yeah yeah yeah, but what i'm saying is someone must have been watching the trap. It looked like brand new rope!" She says, looking up from the paper to look at her father. She had this look that looked just as much determined as it did scared.

"Why would someone place a trap that far away and just stare at it?" He asks and she thinks for a few moments, and looks back at him again,

"Maybe they put it there while we were walking" She suggests, and Hiccup looks down for a minute. Damn she was pretty convincing. Hiccup wasn't even thinking about the possibility, yet here was a six year old with a map trying to see where the possible person could have been sitting.

A six year old was thinking through this situation better than the twenty nine year old Chief.

"But why? If you trap someone wouldn't you want to go in for either the kill or to take them?" Hiccup asks, and it looks like it stumped Brenda.

"Because maybe there were too many of us" Jack says, coming into the kitchen and sitting down in the third chair across from them. "If I was trying to trap something and there were many others in the same area, I probably wouldn't go for it either" He finishes.

Hiccup feels like the kid in this conversation. He was also very proud of them. Usually most viking children take many years to get good at planning. Brenda and Jack however, are young and can talk like adults for the most part.

Jack gets up and goes into his room to grab his mug of water he always keeps next to his bed in case he gets thirsty during the night. He returns with the mug and sits back down.

"Dad, are more bad guys gonna come to our home again?" Jack asks with a slight hint of fear to his question. Hiccup gets up and walks over to Jack's chair and gives him a kiss on the forehead.

"No son. And if there's a man foolish enough to we'll take them down once again"

"Yes! I'll chase them with my axe and make them beg for mercy" Brenda stands on top of her chair and throws her arms into the air. Hiccup shakes his head and smiles.

"Alright, enough of this talk for one day, both of you off to bed" Hiccup commands, and Jack walks to his bed without another word. Brenda hops off her chair and gives Hiccup a surprising hug.

"I love you dad" She says with a smile. She's like Astrid in the fact she doesn't show her emotion often, but when either of them do, it does melt Hiccup's heart.

"I love you too" He returns her hug with one of his own. She backs away and skips into her room. For someone who is usually as stubborn like a rock and as aggressive as a Hungry Nadder, she sure did know how to be a little cutie sometimes.

Hiccup sits back down at the kitchen table and grabs himself some water. Today was way too many emotions conflicting with each other. They were all supposed to be camping right now, not being at home and pondering over past and future battles. Seems like everyone was deciding to reference the raid that happened two years ago. Sure it wasn't the ugliest battle to take place but it sure wasn't pretty. It caught Hiccup and the rest of Berk by surprise. Chaghatai lead an invasion on Berk not too long ago for its supplies. After a few days however he was soundly defeated and his boats were retreating. He was left behind however, and while Hiccup was planning on throwing him in jail, Gobber took matters into his own hands and threw him off the cliff.

"Better not give them reason to come back and try a rescue mission" Was Gobber's answer. It took months to repair some of the buildings from the battle. But not may Berkians died, which was a huge positive.

Hiccup finally decides to give into his heavy eyelids and heads to bed. Astrid is already snoring in their room. He smiles, and joins her on the bed.

...

_On a small island 45 miles from_ Berk

...

"So this is your 'big' idea huh? Remember the luck we had on that Hiccup boy the last time?" A angry warlord asks, frustrated at the plan that was written in front of her.

"Why would we reunite them both and attempt to kill them? They were the ones who defeated you soundly?" She continues on her bombardment of questions, and the person she's asking raises his arm to shush her up.

"They got lucky, and they were on the top of their games" The man replied, staring down the female warlord with a glare that could burn through metal.

"But this time, I have a better plan" He says, easing up and beginning to pace around the area he was standing in.

"But why? This was over seven years ago, why hold such a grudge still?" She asks, in a almost pleading voice. There was no need for them to go back and fight Berk once again.

"They have no dragons, and soon they won't have a Chief" He states.

"But Grimmel-"

"No buts! I will explain more tomorrow, be back here at the crack of dawn" He demands and she nods, heading out of the room. Grimmel turns and faces the mirror before him, staring at the huge scar that begins at his lower left cheek, past his eye towards his forehead. A memory from the day he lost his first battle with a Night Fury.

"You got lucky Hiccup, but what are you going to do with no dragon to protect you this time" He says to his reflection.

Hiccup will get his soon enough, and that is all that Grimmel cares about anymore.

...

**Chapter 3 in the books everyone! I am so excited for the chapters to come! We got some Grimmel action happening next chapter! As well as an explanation to how he survived, as I am sure a lot of you are wondering about. And just as a side note, as I have gotten both reviews and PM's about. Yes, I know Astrid and Hiccup's kids have names. Nuffink and Zephyr. But those names weren't ones I personally liked, and were kinda hard for me to want to type. So I did some research on norse names and found 'Brenda' and 'Jack'. I liked those names and decided to use those instead! Anyway, there is a question i'd like to ask all of you! What should Fishlegs name his child! I have yet to decide on a gender, so pick your gender of choice and a name with it! **

**Anyway, I can't wait to show you all what I have in store next weekend! **

**Coming Next Week, Chapter 4: "Concerns"**


	4. Concerns

**Welcome back everybody! Chapter 3 was one of the most viewed chapters I have ever had! It was truly amazing seeing the view counter go up so much was very great. I had multiple PM's saying how there's no way Grimmel survived that fall, and I can promise you I have a justifiable reason on why he did. I literally spent three solid days during the planning process (Which I started planning this story of Feb 2nd) figuring out how to explain this. This chapter will explain all the questions I was asked this past week. Anyway I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoy writing it! **

Chapter 4- Concerns

...

Griselda was a seasoned viking and warlard of a army she once had. She conquered many lands, as well as their people. She had no problem taking down anyone or anything that stood in her path. And she remembers the time in which she hired Grimmel to take down one little Night Fury. Seven years ago she was trying to trap enough dragons for a dragon army of her own, and all she needed was the Alpha Night Fury. She hadn't lost many battles in her life, and even when she lost she came back and eventually won anyway. But after they had all lost against this _Chief_ and his dragon, she did not want to get involved with them anymore.

She lost, and she knew she would lose facing them again, something she never would have thought would happen in her life. She and her friends were soundly defeated with no hassle at all. She didn't want to risk herself once again. The next seven years she stayed far away from all of this. From Berk, from what Grimmel used to be involved in, everything. She headed west and was building up a army once again. Attempting to get her life back together.

Then one day as she was on her ship preparing to sail, a Deathgripper flew down and snatched her up. She definitely knew she was going to die, as Deathgripper's were never known to be friendly in any capacity. It was one of the dragons that Grimmel had, as it still had the mask with their own venom being injected into their heads. The dragon took her to a island and dropped her off on the beach side of it. She looked around and saw him.

Grimmel

Still very much alive. He looked terrible too. Age very much catching up to him. He was Forty-seven when he lost to Hiccup and the Night Fury. He was Fifty-Four now, and had a limp to him. The fall must have broken something of him, and he must have never let it heal perfectly. He also had a huge slash on the left side of his face, going from his lower cheek to his forehead, going right past his eyes. He told her he needed her help with a revenge type of battle he wanted to do. But whenever she asked about his planes he would shrug it off and say he would explain it later. He promised her last night to go over details about it in the morning, but she really doesn't know how to feel about all this.

Half of her is pissed that she was snatched up by a dragon and held here without any way out of her. The other half feels slightly honored to be hand picked for this. Even if she was pretty much the only option. The other two warlords of her and Grimmel's pack were dead. One being killed on Berk itself, and the larger one dying in a attempted raid against the Bog Isles. Camicazi took him down after eight days worth of battle.

These stories make Griselda contemplate retiring and enjoying her life.

She sighs and stands up from the bed she was sleeping on. It was a fairly simple bed, a single person one. She moves to the desk in front of her and grabs her helmet she had had since she turned eighteen. She walks out of the room and sees Grimmel sitting there at a table in the room outside of that door. His body was facing her as he was looking at a map he had with him. It had many different lines and arrows pointing towards west, it looked like a expedition that had gone on for awhile. He looks up and turns his attention to her.

"Good morning my dearest friend" He gives her a smirk, a smirk that unsettles her.

"I wouldn't call this much of a friendship anymore Grimmel" His smirk turns into a frown.

"And why would that be?"

"For one, you turned against the plan we hired you for" her voice gets three times as loud when she next speaks, "And then you bring me here against my own free will! What the hell is wrong with you?" She spat and he sighs, before getting up and walking towards her with such a blank expression on his face. She backs up slowly, keeping her eyes on his. Her back touches the wall of the room and he comes to a halt once he is withing a foot of her.

"I knew asking you for your help would have resulted in me being chased out of your boat, so I had to talk to you on my terms" He states, moving back a few feet and sitting on the top of the table with one leg off the ground. She remains defensive, not wanting to get too comfortable in this place.

"I don't want to speak with you anymore and you know that!" She yells at him, throwing her arms in the air in total anger and frustration. She did not want to be here with him, she wanted to go back to the life she had. Grimmel turned his back against them in order to kill a Night Fury. He turned against his own allies and friends to kill one dragon. What a dick.

"I'd argue that you want to at least hear my plan" Grimmel stands back up and walks over to the chair he had been sitting in before. He looks down at the map and points his finger towards one of the arrows that leads to a red circle on the map. "After a few years of searching I finally found it". She looks at him with confusion all over her face.

"What did you find exactly"

"I found the Hidden World Griselda, the place that wretched Night Fury is. leading the dragons in peace and blah blah blah". She looks at him and decides to sit down, once again never taking her eyes off of him. She'll admit the statement he just found did touch her curiosity a little. The Hidden World was thought to just be a legend made up by a bunch of drunken sailors. That's how a lot of those tall tails come to be, just a bunch of sailors making people believe things that aren't true.

"And why search for it? The dragons are gone Grimmel, peace has been ma-" He interrupts her,

"Because I deny to lose!" He shouts and her eyes go wide. She was a warlord, a conqueror. But today, she was something she never thought she could be. She was scared. Scared of the game he wants to play.

Grimmel looks down towards his feet with a slight frown on his face,"In all my years of hunting Night Furies I have never lost a single encounter", which was true for all she knew. In the years they spent being friends, he has never lost a battle she had known about. He was never the strongest, but he was damn well the smartest. Or at least the most strategic.

"Yes, and there is a first for everything. But what I am getting from this is you are considering going back there, back to that Chief". He changes his glare and aims it right at her, with anger in his eyes. He softens however, and grabs two cups filled with what looked like water. He walks over and hands her one before taking a sip from the other.

"You are exactly right" He says, giving another devilish smirk to her. "I plan on doing exactly that"

"But why?" She takes a sip from the cup, thanking the gods it was just water.

"Because, I don't like this feeling of loss my dear friend"

"I am not your friend" She interrupts, earning a glare shot right at her. She backs down and takes another sip. If it weren't for those damn Deathgrippers...

"I have never lost Griselda. Never. I could take on a hundred Night Furies and win no matter what. What makes this one so special?" He throws his cup at the wall in frustration.

"I will finish what I started years ago. I am taking down that Night Fury, then I am taking down the Chief of that wretched island" He rubs his left eye. It itched from time to time. The scar covering most of his eyelid. He looked at that scar every day and remembered who did this to him. Who tried to kill him. He was Grimmel, the best dragon hunter to have ever lived. And this goody-two-shoes Chief thought he could beat the man who has defeated an entire species? He got lucky, caught him off guard. But with seven years to think about this, about getting the revenge he so rightfully wanted, there's no way Hiccup could stand a chance.

"There is no way you are taking down that Night Fury without the entire dragon population coming after you" Griselda states, and she wasn't wrong. Going into that waterfall aiming to take down the Alpha would be a suicide mission. But, he knew that.

"That is why we have to draw the Alpha away from his world" Grimmel suggests, stretching his back out. He was starting to feel his age, and that fall didn't help the aging process.

"And how do we do that?" She asks, and she was very curious about this plan of his. You attack the alpha, you get every dragon in the world minus four Deathgrippers going after you. You attack the Chief, you get four hundred vikings chasing you. Its a lose lose situation for him.

"By taking his Queen. They fly around the opening every morning. We trap her, the dragons around him will be rendered useless" He says. He really must have been studying them to know exactly when they fly everyday. How did they not notice him?

"And then your plan is to single out the alpha, hope he doesn't absolutely destroy you, and then try to kill him?" He gives her a very annoyed look, and she returns that with a glare. He was crazy she thought.

"No, my plan is to take his mate and use her life as a means of getting him away from his pack, and return to his old home" He says, pointing down at the map, showing the direction he believes the dragon would take in order to retreat. It sort of made sense to her, at least the part of using his mate as a means of keeping the other dragons out of the picture, but why reunite the dragon and the boy? That part didn't make sense to her.

The reason they lost was because of them two. Keeping them separate made the most sense.

"But why bring them together?" She asks and he looks at her with a look of confidence, a look he seemed to carry far too often to make anyone comfortable.

"After seven years of no contact, they won't be as used to each other anymore. They'll be filled with emotion, and besides, they haven't flown together in years" That sort of made sense to her, but what if they till had the same chemistry? Thor knows how off they might be, but what would happen if they could still fight side by side like they did years ago?

Both she and Grimmel would die. That's exactly what would happen.

"Here, let's take a walk shall we?" He gestures towards the door to her left. He walks over there and opens it, which is connected to a hallway that leads on to a huge opening in the mountain. She walks through the door, right past him. He closes the door behind them and they walk the long hallway, lit by a few wall torches.

"I have to ask, how did you manage to survive that fall?" He sighs but keeps his gaze set for the opening in front of them. That fall was not exactly something he enjoyed reliving.

"I managed to hit the water with my legs first, then my head" He rubs the back of the head, feeling a permanent bump on the back of his skull, "I was knocked out. But while the celebration of victory happened with those Berkians, a Deathgripper scooped me up and took me to a nearby island". Surviving that fall is something she did not understand. Maybe he had a twin that really liked making jokes like this? Seemed more reasonable than thinking a older man survived this.

"And the scar on your face?" This question made the man frown as they reached the entrance to the opening.

"I don't know exactly, must have happened from hitting my head so hard on the water that it caused the other side of my head to split open" He suggests. They both enter the opening and she takes a look around. It isn't that well lit, having only a handful of torches to light up the whole area. There were a few doors around the walls of this place. Two of them looked like jail cells, two were heavily fortified wooden doors, and the final two doors were plain like the one they entered minutes ago.

The two cells were empty, but one looks like it was used not too long ago. The bed in it wasn't made, and it had a tray in there from a meal from not too long ago. There was a fruit on the tray that had not rotted, indicating that if it was used it must have been from the past week or so. She had only been here a few days, she knew nothing of this room or any occupants that might have been here. She heard a muffled sob coming from one of the more fortified doors sitting next to the cell door most recently used.

"Is there someone in there?" she asks and Grimmel gives and evilish looking smirk and walks to the door and bangs his fist against it, causing another muffled sob.

"Nothing more than a bartering tool for someone I need to eventually barter with" He states and she sinks down. While it was common practice, who would Grimmel need to be willing to kidnap someone for the intention of making someone else do something else?

The more she thinks about it the more it makes sense that Grimmel would do something like that. Gods it feels longer than seven years, she doesn't remember much about him like she used to. She tried forgetting about him, forgetting the friendship they once had. They even shared a kiss one night while they were waiting out a storm together. It was cold, and Grimmel felt so warm as he held her that night. It was the first time she truly saw a caring side of him. A side that never comes out.

She wanted to forget about everything about him, he betrayed them, his own friends.

Then kidnaps her for the sake of his suicidal plan.

"And who are you bartering with exactly?" She asks and he shakes his head, "Time will come for those answers, now it is time to ask you a question" She nods her head slightly, a invitation of sorts to ask this all-important question.

"How hard would it be to bring your crew to Berk?" He asks with a look of hope in his eyes. Like his plan seems to be working in his eyes.

She bursts out into laughter. So this is why he had her here? To tell her crew to take care of HIS problems. This was very funny to her. She looked at him, who had disappointment in his look.

"You can't be serious?" His expression doesn't change by her response. "You think i'd seriously help you, who has a plan to get yourself and I killed, who has a plan i don't even Agree with, and is still a fucking asshole for betraying your friends?" He sighs and rubs his forehead in frustration once again, and she paces around the room in anger. What made him think this plan would work? Getting her to do this for him. Dumbass.

"I wasn't asking if you would lead your crew to Berk my dear friend" He pauses, taking a deep breath. "I was asking how hard it would be to get them there" His expression is still cold, and emotionless at this point. She stares at him with her hand at her hip. He seriously had lost his mind if he thought she was going to do this for him. He was in no place to ask for a favor like this.

"You don't deserve my help" she turns her back to him.

"But you do not have a choice in the matter my dear" He says, and takes a step forward. She snaps and turn around, pushing him back a couple of feet. He chuckles at her as she takes a defensive stance.

"Take me back to my people right now Grimmel" She demands and he once again chuckles at her. He can see her fuming, the rage in her eyes. He continued treating this like a laughing matter.

His chuckling came to a complete halt, "I will once we have a deal and you lend me a hand on this wonderful plan of mine" Her eyes dart around the room in search of something to defend herself. While Grimmel never once harmed her, she didn't want to trust him. She was brought here to aid in a mission to die. No way in hell she wasn't gonna find a way to defend herself. She notices a knife on the table by one of the wooden doors. A knife!

She runs over and grabs the knife, which is about six inches in length, and points it in his direction. Once again however, he gives her a chuckle.

"Will you stop laughing for one gods damned moment?!" She yells, obviously infuriated. She wants to hurt him, but only because he was acting like a complete asshole. He only acts this way towards enemies... Wait, was he considering her to be an enemy?

"I'm laughing because you feel like you have a choice in this operated m'dear" He says, very calmly. She walks towards him and he whistles. She hears movement from above her and sees one of his Deathgrippers moving down from the dark ceiling of this room. It falls down and sits behind Grimmel.

"You are going to have to do worse than that to get me to help you" She hisses, and he smirks at her in response.

"Oh believe me, I have all I need to force your hand. Like I said, I have a bartering tool" He says as he gestures towards the door. The blade falls down to her hip and she looks at him in confusion. The bartering tool, the sobs she heard back there. They were meant, for her? He must be crazy. He walks over to the door and moves the lever down so that it opens the door. She sees the legs of someone there as the door keeps going up. When the face of that person is revealed her breath catches in her throat.

He had her own brother trapped on this godforsaken island. Her brother was a bartering tool. Grimmel was going to die.

"You Mother Fucker" She screams, running towards him. She lifts the blade upwards and is withing a foot or so from him when his dragon pushes her away.

"Now now, play nice. because your brother's life is swaying in the balance of all this. Now drop the knife" He commands, and she sighs. Throwing the knife on the other side of the room so he couldn't touch it. Not that it mattered since he has this Deathgripper.

"Why the hel is my brother here!" She demands and a very common sight is seen as he is rubbing his forehead while looking down again.

"Because I need your help!" He says, in a tone that sounds more like pleading than it does anger.

"I can't do this by myself Griselda. And as much as you hate me, I know you are the only one I can trust to help"

"So you kidnap my brother?" She's not letting this one go.

"I'll release him once we have completed our mission, I promise" He closes the door to the room her brother is being held in and locks it up.

"Or release him now!"

"No!" He shouts, walking away from the door and heading back to the hallway where they came from.

"Once we have defeated the Chief and the Alpha. Once that happens you can have your brother and i'll leave you alone forever" He says as he walks out of the room. She sits there, defeated.

Her hand was being forced in this one. There was no way of getting out of it. Now with her brother on the line? She can't hurt Grimmel, or her brother will most likely be killed or worse. It's a risk she can't take with that.

"I swear if you don't let him go after this" She says to herself. She stands back up and walks to the door her brother is in. She knocks on it a few times and hears him sob once again.

"I'll get you out of here soon brother, don't you worry" She kisses the door and walks away, heading back to the door they came from. Emotions running through her head. What does she do? She doesn't like this plan and wants no part of it at all, yet walking away would be the death of her brother. She balls her hands into fists, tears forming in her eyes. She knows one this though,

This plan better work.

...

"So what you are saying is, i'm gonna be craving the weirdest shit?" Ruffnut asks with a little confusion in her eyes.

"Oh yeah, big time" Astrid takes a bite out of her roasted chicken. Hiccup put it on the fire before he had left, going to tend to Chief duties. Thank the gods Hiccup could somewhat cook, because that's one of the few areas Astrid actually lacks in.

"I had huge nonstop cravings of this weird eel while I was pregnant with Hiccup. I hate eel, but for some reason I couldn't get enough of it" Valka chuckles. "Stoick thought I had gone mad" They all laugh. Valka takes a sip of her glass, filled to the top with a sweet honey style mead that Berk has the most of. Easily the most popular one of them all. Tasted like a strong mead with a honey after taste. Some people however, drink way too much of it. Like Tuffnut.

"While I was pregnant with Jack I simply couldn't stop eating" Astrid admits and they all share a laugh once again. The sun starts to go down as night creeps upon them. Astrid looks over towards the arena opening and sees Brenda still training with Eret like they normally do.

Eret was the trainer at the new Berk academy, made to teach the young vikings how to defend themselves from battle. Eret was a very good teacher in everyones eyes, and all the kids loved him. Jack was never much of a fan of learning things like that, but he liked Eret enough to still want to go. Eret's favorite student however, was Brenda. Brenda took after her mother with her determination to be the best in that arena. She and Eret spend a lot of extra time training together. Usually Eret hates doing extra classes, but he very much enjoys training with Brenda. Maybe it's because it is the Chiefs daughter, or maybe Brenda is finally consistently nice to someone for once.

"Yeah I live with Fishlegs, so me eating all the time won't change a whole lot" The Thorston twin says, laughing at her own joke. Astrid continues watching Brenda, seeing her run towards Eret with her axe in hand. The axe had padding on the sharp edges so she could swing it without anyone getting hurt. She swings at Eret and he ducks, elbowing the axe out of her hand and pushing her towards the ground. He points his dagger at her neck and she stares at him in defeat.

"Don't be so obvious of what your move is gonna be little one. Try again" He offers his hand, and she takes it, jumping up and smiling.

"You got lucky Son of Eret" She challenges.

"I'm pretty sure not losing once today is considered luck at this point" She sticks her tongue at him.

The three women watch Eret and Brenda go at it again, with Brenda swinging her axe and Eret once again ducks and pushes the axe out of her small hands.

"Stop being so predictable, you have died nine times today" He tries pushing her down but she dodges it herself and runs for her axe. She grabs it and prepares to swing it. He ducks in anticipation of the move but she doesn't swing. Instead, she brings the axe to his neck when he stands back up. He smiles at her as he drops his dagger and throws his hands in the air.

"See? I knew you had it in you" He says and they fist bump.

"I told you! It was luck" He rolls his eyes at her and she shoots him a glare. "Alright, enough training for one day, rest up" He says and they give one more fist bump to eachother before he walks back to the arena. Brenda sees her mom and runs over to her.

"Hey there bub" Astrid says and Brenda shoots her her signature glare.

"I was gonna hug you till you called me that" She says. Astrid rolls her eyes, grabs her wrists and pulls her forward for a hug anyway. Brenda lets out a playful scream. Astrid lets go after a few moments. Brenda sits down and joins the group of women.

The next hour or so is pretty much all of them talking about pregnancy stories, with Brenda asking way more questions than Ruffnut was, which was surprising. They all sat there enjoying one another's company until it got dark and both the food and the mead were gone. They all walked to their respective houses. Astrid opens the door to the house and finds it completely empty. She knew Jack was probably still busy at the forge with Gobber, but where had Hiccup run off to?

She sighs and walks towards the Great Hall, where he usually was if he wasn't home. She pushes the door open and sure enough, Hiccup was in there, alone, with nothing more than a few maps and notes in front of him.

"I'm guessing you've been here ever since you left for your 'Chieft duties'" She says from across the hall and his head shoots up to look at her. He smiles at her and returns to looking at the pages sprawled all over the table before him. She walks over to him and kisses the top of his head.

"So what's all this stressing about?" He frowns at the map

"Well, knowing that Grimmel could be alive and possibly threaten the safety of our home makes it sort of hard to sleep at night" He says and she runs her fingers through his hair and lets out a light sigh. While it was common for a Chief to over prepare if anything threatened their village, Hiccup took it to extreme levels sometimes. Ever since the raid he has taken extra measurements on any possibly enemy in sight. And after what Grimmel did it was hard to blame him, but at the same time she hates seeing him like this.

"It's gonna be okay Hiccup" She takes a deep breath, "Even if he was alive, he doesn't have the same support and power he did last time. We beat him before we could beat him again" She finishes and rubs his cheek. Hiccup leans into her touch and takes a deep breath himself.

"I know, but I can't help but worrying"

"Worrying is going to be the death of you one day babe" Astrid says, and he looks at her and smiles. He pulls her closer and kisses her passionately. He stands up without breaking the kiss and wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her even closer. A few moments later he breaks the kiss and gives her a huge smile.

"You'd kill me if I died" He says jokingly and she can't help but let out a chuckle"

"You're damn right I would" They sit there for a few moments with Hiccups arms still around her. She loved moments like these, where they get a few moments away from everything and get to be with each other. Sure he worrying about a enemy that isn't even fully confirmed to be alive, but this moment they are sharing, is something she wish they could have more often.

She takes a step back and grabs his hand, lacing her fingers with his, she smiles and kisses his cheek. "Let's head back" She says and he nods in agreement. They exit the hall and see the night sky filled with tons of bright stars. It was truly a beautiful sight. As they walk Hiccup starts pulling her in a different direction of their house. She resists at first but gives in after a few moments, and they start walking to the cliff side of the island.

"Why are we here?" She asks and he points out in the direction of the ocean. The beautiful night sky reflecting onto the calm water beneath them was truly a sight to behold. He wraps an arm around her side and pulls her close once again. She continues to stare out into the water, and Hiccup kisses her temple

"I love you Astrid"

"And I love you" She leans in and gives him a quick kiss.

"I don't know what i'd do without you. The best Chieftess a Chief could ever ask for" She feels her cheeks turn a light red.

"You are such a dork sometimes and I love it" She kisses him again

"It's sometimes hard to think we used to not be close like this. I mean, I was in love with you ever since I found out love was a thing but" He inhales, "It's just weird reflecting on how much our lives changed from those years ago" He takes a breath and looks at her in her eyes. He has always loved looking at her beautiful blue eyes.

"Well, the feeling was slightly mutual, except I wouldn't say I was in love with you back then" She chuckles and smiles, "But I'll admit it is weird looking back at it. But I am sure am glad we made it here"

They spend another few minutes at the cliff side before eventually heading home and settling in for bed. Hiccup agreed to calm down on the Grimmel situation stressing him out, deciding to wait for concrete evidence about him being alive before getting back to that level.

They both they never have to see that man again. The man that hunted them down for the sake of killing a Night Fury.

...

**Another chapter in the books. So now we know how Grimmel survived and what his plan sort of is. Really is a crazy plan, and honestly planning out this idea of his was a challenge for it all to make sense but I loved every second of it. At the end of chapter 3 it seemed like she knew his whole plan, but she didn't know much except the crazy idea of reuniting Hiccup and Toothless. Who would do that? Grimmel would that's who! ANYWAY Next chapter has a HUGE thing at the end of it, as the gears are really about to start turning for this story. These chapters were really fun to write and all, but we are gonna start getting into the heart of the story. But stay tuned next week! Because I promise you there are some interesting things that happen in chapter 5!  
**

**Coming next week Chapter 5- Realization**


	5. Realization

**Hello everybody once again! Always great to start my Monday mornings writing these chapters, and reading all your messages I have been getting recently. To answer a couple questions or concern I got. People were confused about Griselda, and to those who don't know her (her name was never mentioned in the movie so I completely understand), she was the female that hired Grimmel in the movie. The one with the weird looking helmet! Also, people have asked why I don't post more often, and the answer is simply I do not have the time to post twice a week. I work 50 hours a week sadly, or else trust me i'd be writing every day. Anyway, the ending to this chapter is HUUUUUUUGE, big thing happening today! I hope you guys enjoy.**

Chapter 5- Realization

...

Hiking these trails once again felt weird. The same eastern trail that had that trap that took Jack up and held him there. Hiccup didn't want to adventure back to the area and see any clues as to what may have been the reason for said trap, but Jack practically begged him to go back just for a look. A peek even. Damn him and his curiosity. The trail leading up to there remained unchanged to when they walked it not too long ago. Still a dense line of trees surrounding them, and still the same dirt pathway.

"So I must ask again, what are you expecting to get out of this adventure?" Hiccup asks and Jack's eyes don't move from the fork up ahead. They had been walking for a short while, and for the most part was silent. Jack seemed determined, and when he had that look to him he was silent. Hiccup had tried talking but eventually gave up. They make the left turn at the fork and see the area coming up.

"I wanna see how new the trap was" Jack shrugs his shoulders and keeps walking. He brought his pencil and his book with him. He wrote some things in it, and drew a sloppy map of this area as well. He must have really been thinking about this for a bit of time.

They approach the spot of the trap, where the shiny silver object was. The rope was still hanging, one piece still hanging up in the air and the other piece on the ground. Hiccup inspects the rope, and it looks newer, like it was made not too long ago. The only problem to the theory of it being super new was the fact the only thing they could go off of was a rope. Any rope can look new long as you take care of it and almost never use it. Hell, Hiccup probably has rope from eleven years ago that still looks like this one.

Jack walks around the little area, and eventually joins Hiccup in looking at the rope. He stares at it for a few moments and starts writing things into his book.

"New rope, marking that down" He says and Hiccup lets out a sigh.

"Son, a rope can look new even after being a few years old" Hiccup states and Jack shakes his head and points at the rope Hiccup is holding.

"wouldn't the color fade if was older? This one is still bright and it's color still there fully" Hiccup thinks for a moment. That does kind of make sense. The rope was a full color of brown, without anything fading yet. Surely there would be some kind of fading, maybe a few brighter spots from the dark brown paint wearing off and showing the natural color of the rope. Jack was a very smart five, almost six year old.

Hiccup puts the rope down and smiles towards Jack. "You are very smart bud, that makes sense to me" Jack smiles and nods at Hiccup before moving his attention to the trees surrounding them.

"There" Jack points to a slight opening in the treeline, a perfect spot to see the trail from farther away. Hiccup starts walking towards that general area, Jack a few steps behind him, still writing things down in his book. There's not much around here save for a few large rocks and a few small trees and bushes. Jack runs towards a rock to the left as Hiccup sees something towards the right. It's another large rock, large enough to easily hide somebody behind it. He looks at the ground behind it and sees something that catches his breath.

Hiccup calls for Jack and hears him running over to him, and he gasps and frantically opens his book to a new page.

There, right in front of them, was a blanket and a basket that was half open. The blanket looked used and the basket didn't look like it had many things inside it. Hiccup kneels down and grabs the basket and starts grabbing things out of it. A half loaf of bread, which still looks somewhat fresh. A small canteen filled with water. A few pieces of dried cod. a towel. And the last thing Hiccup sees in the basket is a tightly wrapped package. It was small, a few inches in length but only an inch or two wide. Hiccup unties the package, not taking as much effort as he had thought.

He opens the package and sees two more of Grimmel's darts in there. One filled with Deathgripper venom, as he had normally filled them with. The other dart was filled with a weird orange liquid that Hiccup had no clue what it possibly could be.

"Well, I suppose your theory is correct, this is a newer trap" Hiccup admits. Jack has a proud expression on his face, probably due to the fact he was right about this all along. The thought of this however, once again makes Hiccup's mind race. So the trap was put there in the not too distant past. Which means someone put it there with some intention of trapping somebody and possibly injecting them with this orange liquid. Someone put this there, and they had to have been affiliated with Grimmel in some way, or maybe it was Grimmel himself. All Hiccup knew was there was an enemy who sneaked passed every pair of eyes on this island, figured out when Hiccup and his family were going camping, stayed within earshot of them until they figured out which area to place the trap. Then place the trap down and patiently wait for the perfect moment. The first dart missed and maybe they didn't like the amount of people around to want to continue, then ran away.

All these thoughts made Hiccup's head hurt.

Hiccup closes the package that held the darts and placed them in his pocket.

"We got your answers Jack, let's start walking back and inform your mother" Jack closes his book and they both head back to the trail. While it makes Jack feel better about being correct, it scares Hiccup. They had just dealt with enemies not too long ago, and Grimmel ins't exactly someone Hiccup every wanted to cross paths with ever again. He was worse than anyone Hiccup had ever faced. He wasn't the strongest, but he was easily the smartest.

"Dad, what are we going to do about the bad guys" Jack stops walking and lifts his arms up in the air, signaling he wants to be lifted. Hiccup chuckles and puts Jack on his shoulders and continues walking.

"We are going to have to fight them I suppose" Hiccup makes a slight right, turning back to the main trail that leads back to the sheep fence. Jack plays with Hiccup's hair, running his little hands through it. For some reason he always loved doing it whenever he sat on his father's shoulders.

"Will me and Brenda have to fight?"

"No you guys won't have to, but I am sure your sister will try a million times to try to" They both laugh, knowing that is exactly what would happen. Brenda was always a fighter, regardless of subject. She once tried to fight Tuffnut because he stopped right in front of her, causing her to walk right into him. Tuffnut didn't make anything better by deciding to yell, and that just made her even more mad. Hiccup actually struggled to hold her back on that day, and then Hiccup had to hold Astrid back as well because Tuffnut yelled at Brenda.

Hiccup and Jack live with two very feisty women.

"But we can both hope that no fight will have to happen, maybe the bad guys ran off" Hiccup adds and Jack shrugs his shoulders. They approach the Cattle yard fence that is right outside the east trail and continue on to the house.

"Change of subject, what has your sister been up to? I haven't seen her much lately" Hiccup asks and Jack lets out a little chuckle.

"She's been with Eret every day, training for war I think is what she said" Jack admits and Hiccup shakes his head.

Two Very Feisty women.

They arrive at their house and Hiccup picks Jack off his shoulders and puts him on the ground. Jack gives Hiccup a tight hug, even if Jack could only hug up to Hiccup's leg. "Thank you for taking me to the trap place dad". Hiccup smiles and kneels down, and gives him a hug back.

"No problem, Now go do whatever it is a young man like you must do at this time of day" Hiccup lets go and Jack nods before running to the forge, deciding it's best to use his time with Gobber. Which is pretty much what Hiccup used to do, except Hiccup was sort of forced to, Jack wasn't. Stoick sent Hiccup to the forge as a way of keeping him out of the way during dragon raids. Hiccup loved being in the forge regardless however, building new things and fixing weapons was something he came to enjoy. Hiccup wonders if maybe that's something Jack wants to do when he is older.

Hiccup makes his way to the training arena, a place he hasn't visited much over the years. He really only stopped by there during emergencies, or if he needed Eret for something. Other than that Hiccup never really found himself coming here. He enters the arena and finds it strangely empty. It was the beginning of the week, and usually Eret did the most lessons during the beginning of every week. The first three days was for the bigger lessons, and the next two days after that was usually having one on one lessons. Then of course he'd have two days for himself, which he sometimes really needed.

But at this second, the arena was empty. Hiccup stood there at the door leading to the entrance, deciding if it would be best to come back later, when two huge arms wrap around him and squeeze tightly for a few moments before letting go. Hiccup frantically turns around and sees Eret with a smug smirk on his face.

"What brings you here today Chief?" Eret asks as he walks to his table which is right next to the door. He had a stack of papers, all of which are from his students. Every now and then Eret actually had them do a 'written' assignment', something Hiccup didn't know even existed. Basically there were questions and you had to answer them right, and if you didn't you had to run laps. His way of teachings has never been questioned however.

Eret sits down at his desk and gestures Hiccup to sit as well, which he does. Hiccup pulls out the two darts and sets them on the table. Eret's eyes pop open in surprise. Hiccup took a slight breath.

"We found these at the area where Jack got trapped, wanted to know if you knew anything I didn't about these" He states and Eret picks up both the darts and inspects them. After a few moments his gaze returns to Hiccup,

"Well, it's Grimmel's handy work for sure, looks like they have never been shot due to the condition they are in" He puts down the darts back in front of Hiccup. Hiccup runs a hand through his hair and lets out a sigh.

"Any idea what this orange liquid is inside of this dart?" He gestures to the dart and Eret shakes his head slightly.

"I only know of the purple stuff, Deathgripper venom" Eret states, "Maybe take the thing to Mable? Maybe she has a clue as to what it is". Hiccup nods and picks the two darts back up and places them back in his pocket.

"Anyway, how has Brenda been doing?" Hiccup asks and Eret takes his shoulder pads off and reveals a huge purple bruise on his right shoulder. It starts at the shoulder blade and seems to go to the collarbone area, even into the upper chest area.

"She finally learnt how to gain a upper hand on me" Hiccup feels both sad and proud at the same time. Proud because his daughter is a every bit the warrior Astrid is, but sad because she is borderline abusing her teacher.

"Maybe she should teach you to defend yourself Eret" Hiccup chuckles, "I mean, if a trainer is losing to a six year old Berk might have a problem" Eret shoots him a huge glare.

"You try facing her day in and day out" Eret retorts, putting the shoulder pads he normally wears back on.

"I used to be her punching bag when Astrid was teaching her how to fight, trust me I have been there" Eret doesn't relent on his glare, and Hiccup stands up and pushes his chair in.

"Thanks for trying to help with these darts" Eret nods and extends his hand out to the Chief. Hiccup shakes it and gives a small smile.

"I'm sure Mable will figure it out for ya Chief, talk to you later" Hiccup gives him a wave and walks out of the arena, heading to the Healers hut.

...

"So you say he's been over stressing about all this?" Valka asks, pouring a cup of green tea she had been brewing. She puts down the pot and picks up her cup before blowing on the top.

"Yeah, I mean even worse than he normally does when it comes to anything remotely dangerous" Astrid says, taking a sip of her own tea. Astrid had stopped by a little bit ago since Hiccup was nowhere to be found, and Valka was always easy to talk to when it came to any problems that were Hiccup related.

"He wakes up in the middle of the night a lot, babbling about some nonsense" She takes a large gulp of the tea, and Valka takes a sip from her cup as well. Astrid was never much of a tea fan, but Valka's tea was an exception, as usually it was always above par.

"Maybe he is just being a little over protective, having a family and all to worry about" Valka sets down her cup and gives a small smile to Astrid, "Stoick was the same way with me and Hiccup. He'd go to great lengths to make sure we were protected and safe"

"Guess it just runs in the family. But there's no evidence of anyone coming after us, after Berk" Astrid retorts and Valka puts her hand on Astrid's shoulders.

"Maybe he just doesn't want to risk being unprepared like the last time" Valka says, in reference of the raid from a few years ago. They were not prepared for it at all, and Hiccup was frantically making sure she and the kids were safe. He knew Astrid could handle her own quite easily, and Brenda, Despite being four at the time, was not easy to take down even if she wasn't strong enough to really fight back. He still worried to death regardless.

"I know he means well about it, I just hate seeing him like this" The sight of seeing him so stressed and possibly even afraid, is not a sight Astrid likes seeing. Hiccup always had a solution to every single problem he has ever had to deal with, even if sometimes those solutions look bad. Seeing him stressed makes Astrid feel slightly lost, because she feels like he would normally have a solution, or at the bare minimum a plan. All Hiccup has said lately about it is that they need to be prepared for the worst and he has to be able to take Grimmel down.

So where does the time start to actually plan?

"He does it because he cares dear. He'll figure it out, he might just need some help getting there is all". Valka has said something like this before, when Grimmel was here the first time. Valka always had a way with words, just like Hiccup.

"We can only hope he figures this out soon enough, i'd very much like to see him have a full nights sleep for once" Astrid says, standing up in the process. She puts down her cup and smiles at Valka.

"Thank you for having me" Astrid walks towards the door.

"Always a pleasure to see my daughter in law" Valka says, giving Astrid a wave before the Chieftess walks out of the house and into the dirt pathway.

Valka's house wasn't too far from her own. Valka's house was right next to the forge, and the forge was a very short walk from Astrid's. It was still midday as Astrid walked the path. This day had felt way too long for her. Sort of like the day itself was just dragging along.

As she walks by the forge she sees Jack and Gobber doing a small project together. Jack always loved going into the forge, and Gobber always seemed to enjoy the company. Gobber has always insisted on Jack possibly becoming the next man to run the forge, and while it seems like a no brainer, there was a bigger problem Hiccup and Astrid have yet to address.

Which child would be the Heir?

Brenda technically makes the bigger case since she is the older one. But you can have the younger child become Chief if you so choose, it just wasn't tradition. They both have had talks about it before but it has never led to a decision. They both agree that both of them are exceptional Heir's to the throne, and that makes the decision a lot harder than it should be.

If Jack became the next in line, then Gobber would have to look elsewhere for a replacement. And Astrid is positive Brenda would not even entertain the idea of working the forge. She doesn't mind being around Gobber, but she hates doing anything involving that forge. Jack is a more caring and more understanding person, which are two amazing traits to have in a chief, it is unknown what he would do in a situation that needed some action. Brenda meanwhile, would have no problem springing to action or dealing with any major problem of that sorts. Hell if she was older, Astrid was willing to bet she would have already found and defeated Grimmel by now.

But the real problem is that they have yet to even discuss who to properly make the Heir. Usually you know this by the time a kid is three or four, and both their kids are older than that. Maybe it's because they are lazy, or maybe it's because they don't want either kid hating each other because of the decision. Jack and Brenda were very close, maybe not super kind to each other, but they clearly cared about one another. Astrid could not imagine that being ripped away by jealousy. Not that she believed that would happen, but she wouldn't want to see it if it somehow did.

Astrid approaches the door to her home, opening the door and walking into an empty home. She scratches the top of her head in slight confusion. Hiccup said he would be back by now, and Jack was already at the forge. So where did he run off to? She knew he wasn't at the Hall, because there was not much reason to be there, or else she would know about it. He also said he wouldn't go up there to stress about Grimmel anymore, so there was no reason at all to go there today. He wasn't at the forge either. This also makes her wonder where Brenda went all day, as she has also been nowhere to be seen.

She walks out of the house on a mission to find either of them. She wasn't a fan of sitting inside an empty house anyway, so might as well make decent use of the time. She walks down the pathway that leads to the cliff side. It was the main path of the village, going from the cliff side to the Chief's house, to the Great Hall. There were paths that branched off from it that lead to other houses, as well as the forge and the healers and other places of interest.

Walking down the path she sees Ruffnut and Fishlegs walking around as they normally tend to do. They both enjoyed walking around pretty much all day.

"Hey Astrid, what are you wandering around about?" Fishlegs asks as they both walk over to her. Astrid lets out a slight sigh.

"Just trying to figure out where Hiccup and Brenda went, that's all" Astrid says and Ruffnut points to the Cliff side.

"Hiccup went inside the healers not too long ago, don't know where he went after that" Ruffnut shrugs and Astrid nods and walks to the healers. Mable's office was right next to the cliff. She approaches the door to the Healers but she sees something in the corner of her eye. She looks over towards the Pier area that extends slightly over the cliff and sees Hiccup and Brenda both on the pier. Brenda was actually sitting on the guardrail of it, and Hiccup was holding her and making sure she doesn't fall. They were both looking out towards the ocean.

Astrid smiles and walks towards them, being quiet enough so they don't hear her coming. She stops at the very beginning of the pier and decides to lean on the railing, looking at her husband and daughter.

"So you are saying the old Berk is that way?" Brenda points in the general direction the pier itself is facing.

"Yes, we all used to live there with all the dragons. It was a very beautiful place"

"Then why did you guys all decide to move?" Brenda asks and Hiccup frowns slightly.

"We were forced to by Grimmel, but we ended up making another village just as beautiful" Hiccup says and Brenda looks up at Hiccup.

"No one is gonna force us out of here" Brenda says and Hiccup laughs. Brenda slaps Hiccup's arm, the same arm making sure she doesn't fall off.

"I don't think they would be able to to, both you and your mother are too tough for anybody to try to move" Brenda smiles, and nods. Astrid holds back a chuckle. She loves seeing Hiccup and Brenda together. It's usually the only time Brenda is actually calm for the most part. Hiccup is a miracle worker when it came to that. Astrid keeps thinking about how cute it is to see them like this.

"Yeah! I'll beat them all up with my own hands" Hiccup laugh and Astrid tries her best to hold her own laugh in, not wanting to ruin the moment they are having.

"i'm sure you would. You'd beat them up just like you beat Eret up" Brenda scoffs

"He asks for me to try my best!" Brenda crosses her arms and pouts.

"I don't think he expected you to be able to actually beat him" Brenda throws her arms up in the air, "Then what is he training me for huh?" She looks at Hiccup again

"You gotta be able to beat your teacher eventually or you didn't learn anything" She pokes Hiccup's head while saying that and Hiccup pokes at her side, causing her to jump slightly, then panic as she sees she is on top of the railing that is suspended so very high above the ground. She holds Hiccup's arm tightly, before eventually calming down and relaxing. She flicks Hiccup in the chin, causing him to glare at her

"That's what you get for scaring me like that" She sticks her tongue at him. Hiccup shakes his head. They go silent for a few moments, both looking out towards the ocean view. Hiccup tends to stare out into the water often, it really helps him think sometimes. Hard to not have a clear head when you have such a beautiful view ahead of you.

"So when are we gonna take a trip to see the old Berk?" Brenda asks and Hiccup takes a moment to think of his answer. He had previously talked about possibly going back to the old island just to see what it looked like today, and if maybe anything was living there. The kids seemed interested in the idea of it, Astrid seemed indifferent of it, not really caring about it too much.

Astrid decides to finally walk up to them and wrap her arms around Hiccup, which he of course jumps at the surprise.

"Oh- Hello m'lady" Hiccup says. Brenda turns around and gives Astrid a smile, turning her entire body to face them both.

"You guys gonna answer my question?" Brenda asks and Astrid rolls her eyes.

"Maybe one day when we have the time to, running a village doesn't exactly give you all kinds of free time" Astrid says and Hiccup gives a slight nod to that. While he had time to do what he wanted to during the day, they did not have the kind of vacation time to head out whenever they wanted.

Another few moments of silence pass by, interrupted by Mable running towards them.

"Mable hey! Slow down it's okay, take a breath" Hiccup takes a step towards the older viking.

"Hey Chief, Chieftess" Mable says, giving them both a nod. She hands Hiccup back both the darts, with them both not being filled to the top anymore. Hiccup places them both in his pocket and closes it tight.

"What did you manage to find out?" Hiccup asks and Astrid looks at him in confusion. "Oh yeah I haven't had time to talk to you about this. When me and Jack went back to the site we found food and these darts nearby" Hiccup says and Astrid glares at him.

"This is the kind of story you should be coming to tell me about" Astrid says, not lowering her glare whatsoever. Hiccup sighs and shrugs.

"I got kinda sidetracked i'm sorry, but anyway one of the darts was filled with some weird liquid that I had no knowledge of" he continues and she raises and eyebrow.

"Exactly another reason to tell me right away" She punches him in the arm, and Brenda walks up to Hiccup and punches him in his forearm, as she can only reach up so high.

"You should have told me as well! I'd have fought them!" Brenda says, puffing her chest out slightly.

"There wasn't anybody to fight Brenda. We can talk about this later" Astrid shakes her head and eventually shrugs her shoulders, gesturing for him to do whatever he needed to do.

"What did you come to say Mable?" He returns his attention to the healer. She shakes her head as well and looks at Hiccup straight in the eyes.

"That orange liquid is some sort of...venom" She states and Hiccup sighs.

"Yeah I figured that but I was hoping for something-"

"It's the lethal kind I believe Chief" She interrupts and he gulps. So a venom that puts you to sleep, and something to kill you? At humane death, sounds exactly like Grimmel. He was smart, and he also wasn't the type to torture. The only positive about that guy.

"I can't pinpoint exactly where the liquid comes from or how much a lethal dose is, I just know that it can kill" Mable says and Hiccup runs his hand through his hair in frustration like he usually does.

"O-Okay alright, do whatever testing you need to do to figure out what it is" He hands her back the darts and shakes his head. Why can't the enemies just leave Berk alone?

"Hiccup, it isn't that simple. I can't test it to find that out" She says and he looks at her with frustration in his eyes.

"Then how do we figure it out?" He asks, his voice slightly louder than he was five minutes ago. He wasn't mad at Mable, he was frustrated of the situation.

"I have no idea where to even start looking to figure out what it is!" She says

"I know what that liquid is" A voice from behind them says. Hiccup turns around and his jaw drops.

The man in front of him was half covered in a cloak of hide, made perfectly for his size. But the man in question was someone Hiccup never thought he would see again, and someone Hiccup did not want to see again. Many emotions flew through Hiccup as Astrid's jaw dropped slightly too before commanding Brenda to get behind her. Hiccup stares at the man in front of him for several moments, still in shock of seeing him again. Finally Hiccup opens his mouth to speak.

"Drago..."

...

**AAAAND That's it for Chapter 5! Told you there was something big at the end, and boy oh boy I cannot wait to write Chapter 6! What is Hiccup going to do? Be angry, upset, happy? This also starts Act II for this story, this is where we are really getting into the nitty gritty of the plot. So strap in your seat belts because this is going to be a ride for sure! Thank you all again for reading my story, I hope you all are enjoying it as much as I am. Feel free to leave a review or shoot me a PM, I love seeing everything you guys have to say. You all are amazing!**

**Coming next week- Chapter 6: Bludvist**


	6. Bludvist

**And we are back my friends! Sorry for the slightly late update, I actually got kind of sick on Tuesday and it has been killing me since. This chapter was slightly tricky to plan, for the oh so small reason of Drago being there, in front of Hiccup, being alive and such. I just wonder what our dear Chief is going to do... makes me all excited. I hope you guys all enjoy. Because I enjoyed making this. Also... There is a HUUUGE twist in this chapter just like the last. So be prepared. Anyway, enjoy the chapter!**

**...**

Chapter 6- Bludvist

Hiccup pulls out his retractable sword and gets in a defensive stance. He puts himself between His Wife and Daughter, and Drago himself. Hiccup's new sword doesn't ignite since there isn't enough Monstrous Nightmare Saliva to maintain it as necessary, but it was instead a lot sharper than the previous model. Hiccup usually kept it on his right side.

Hiccup stares Drago down and takes a quick glance at him. There are more gray hairs than he remembers, and Drago no longer wears his prosthetic arm, instead covering the stump with the cloak he has made. Didn't he used to wear a cloak of dragon skin? Hiccup points the sword at his foe, and Drago doesn't move for a moment.

That moment felt like an hour to everyone watching.

But after a brief moment, Drago held his arm in the air.

"I come in peace Chief Hi-"

"There is no peace whenever something involves you" Hiccup moves a step forward with the sword still facing Drago. Drago frowns but still keeps his arm in the air. Hiccup inspects Drago, and he notices that he is unarmed. This doesn't change Hiccup's stance or his thoughts. Why would this... bastard of a man show up again.

"Hiccup.. I understand your emotion. I just came here to talk, man to man" Drago keeps his gaze fixed on Hiccup's eyes, waiting for any hint that maybe Hiccup would be willing to listen. Hiccup takes another step forward, with anger written all over his face.

"And why would I have any reason to listen to you?" Drago's arm drops to his side and he glares at his own feet.

"I have information that might be use-"

"We don't need anything from you" Hiccup yells, and Drago takes a half a step back, but Hiccup closes the gap slightly with a step forward himself.

Astrid looks on, not knowing if she should really say anything or not. Brenda is by her side, watching on as well with a hint of anger herself, even if she doesn't know why she should be angry. Hiccup looked angry, really really angry, and Astrid found it best to let him get it out. For as long as nothing got out of hand.

"I wouldn't come here if I believed you didn't, just hear me out is all I ask" Drago surprisingly doesn't have the same anger Hiccup does. He almost looks like he wants to help, almost a pleading look on him. Astrid thought the only feeling Drago ever had was a feeling of wanting to conquer everyone in his path. Maybe defeat humbled him, but no one can truly leave their feelings behind, especially someone like Drago.

"You don't deserve me to listen after everything you did" Hiccup takes another step forward, now withing a foot or two of Drago. Drago puts his arm out in front of him in defense, looking like he doesn't want anything to do with this.

"And I have done a lot, especially to you. I have taken a lot from you Chief" Drago starts, and Hiccup's eyes water up with so much emotion that was bottled up being released.

"I know that forgiveness, or trust, is out of the question. I no longer have those old intentions I once had"

"That's because there are no more dragons for you to control" Hiccup retorts and Drago sighs.

"I guess that is one of the many reasons. I have spent the last eight years reflecting, and I have enjoyed retirement" Hiccup's face doesn't make any movement, and Drago takes a deep breath.

"Look, I just want to talk, you all are in danger Hiccup" Hiccup's sword lowers slightly, and he takes a moment to think. Drago doesn't move, deciding it would be best not to. Aggravating Hiccup would probably cause more harm than good, and Drago thought it would be best to come unarmed. Possibly a bad decision.

"I am not the one in danger right now" Hiccup moves forward and kicks Drago in the lower stomach, and Drago winces to the hit, holding the area he kicked. Hiccup doesn't give him a moment to recover and pushes him onto the ground, his back touching the grass.

"You think you can kill my father, attempt to kill me, Toothless and the rest of my village" Hiccup takes a deep breath and puts the sword at Drago's neck, "And then you think you can come here and tell me you are all about peace?" A tear rolls down Hiccup's cheek, the emotion leaking out. And no one would argue that it wasn't justified.

"We should have killed you when we defeated you the first time. I DENY to make that mistake again" Hiccup screams and lifts his sword over his head, with the point facing Drago. His eyes go from wide eyed to closed, seemingly accepting his fate. Hiccup looks at him for a moment, and pulls the sword back a little farther. He swings it down but someone pushes him slightly so it misses his fallen foe. The sword goes into the dirt. Hiccup thinks someone came with Drago to stop someone from killing him. Hiccup takes a moment and begins turning his head.

"How dare y-" He looks over and sees Astrid standing where he once was, and she has a worried expression on her face.

"Astrid... why would you do such a thing" Hiccup retracts the sword but keeps it in his hand, his anger pointing at Astrid.

"He just came here to talk, it's probable that he wouldn't come here unless he felt like he had to" Astrid looks down at Drago and he nods his head in agreement.

"And why would we listen to an asshole like him?!" Hiccup moves to within a few inches of her, and she takes a defensive stance herself.

"Because Hiccup, a Chief must do anything necessary to keep his people safe!"

"And killing him would get rid of a threat altogether" Hiccup yells and Astrid punches his right arm, but he doesn't move.

"Do you not hear yourself? This isn't you Hiccup" Astrid yells back. Hiccup was not a killer, he would only do such a thing if he had no other option. He was usually the one who would attempt to talk his enemies to death. Why wouldn't he do that now?

"Sometimes a Chief must do whatever it takes, even if it makes him unpopular to his own people" Hiccup says, something his father told him multiple times. Astrid feels anger burning in herself, towards Hiccup. This isn't who he is.

Hiccup pushes her out of the way and pulls out the blade of his sword once again. But before he can even swing, Astrid grabs it from his hand and throws it over the cliff side. Hiccup watches it as it falls down into the water. His head whips back to Astrid with anger fuming out of him.

"What the fuck Astrid? Are you siding with an enemy now?" He stalks forward, and Astrid takes a step back.

"Just hear him out, what harm could it possibly do?" Astrid asks in an almost pleading voice. She does not like this Hiccup in front of her. The compassionate and understanding Chief is the man she fell in love with. The man filled with anger and wanting nothing more than ending a life was a stranger to her in comparison.

"Astrid, stay out of this" He commands, but she shakes her head. Hiccup grinds his teeth together and glares at her. But before he can do anything, he feels something hug the back of his leg. He turns his head and sees Jack, hugging his leg tightly. Hiccup lets out a deep breath as the look in his eyes look a little more calm.

"Jack, you stay out of this as well"

"No!" Hiccup sighs.

"And why not?" Jack looks up at Hiccup with a frown on his face.

"You tell me all the time a good Chief never seeks out war!" Jack says with a sad look on his face, a face of being lied to. Hiccup preaches always needing to think a situation through as Chief, because not thinking leads to bad decisions being made.

"He started this war son, a Chief must protect his own" Hiccup tries getting Jack off his leg, but Jack keeps his grip as tight as can be.

"Hiccup would you listen to yourself? This isn't you" Astrid says and Hiccup glares at her. After a few moments his glare softens and he looks at the ground with a saddened expression on his face. A tear falls down his cheek as he looks back up to Astrid.

"He- He doesn't deserve for me to hear him out" Hiccup says, gesturing to Drago who is still on the ground looking up at them. He has yet to move since Astrid threw the sword over the cliff.

"No he doesn't Hiccup, and we all get that" Astrid walks to within a few inches of Hiccup and rests her hand on his cheek. He embraces it and leans against her hand. She lets out a small smile and kisses his forehead.

"But at the same time, you are always the type to at least try and talk things through, even when you shouldn't" She points at Drago, "When you tried talking him out of his mission, or talking to Viggo countless times to get him to move on" Hiccup looks at her with a small smile brewing on his face.

"Even when all of Berk wanted nothing more than to kill dragons to protect the village, you were still crazy enough to try and change their minds in the middle of the arena. So if anyone is going to be willing to talk something through to anyone, it would be you Hiccup" She finishes, and Brenda lets out a small clap from behind her. She looks at her and Brenda gives a cheeky smile before taking a few steps back and standing beside her brother, who had also taken a few steps back from when he was hugging Hiccup's arm.

Hiccup moves forward and gives Astrid a tight hug, and she returns one to him as well. After a brief moment they take a step back, and she smiles, seeing the calmness in Hiccup's eyes.

"You're right, absolutely right" He says and she nods proudly, happy to see him finally thinking things through. His gaze returns to Drago, and Hiccup extends his hand out to help him up. After a moments hesitation, Drago takes Hiccup's hand as he gets back up. Hiccup pulls Drago close and Hiccup says quietly,

"Don't make me regret listening to her" Hiccup pulls back and Drago nods, knowing its best to stay on as good of terms as possible.

"Let's get back to the house, we can talk there. And Astrid?" He looks towards her and she whips her head around to face him, "Yes?"

"You owe me a new sword" He states and she laughs while shaking her head.

"In my defense, I had no other way of stopping you from not thinking this all through" he glares at her.

"You couldn't have thrown it towards the grass?" She shakes her head. "Nope you could have simply went and gotten it" he sighs and gestures them to start walking back.

The walk back to the house was a quiet one. Hiccup was in front of everybody while Drago lagged by a step behind. Astrid and the kids were behind the both of them, with nobody saying anything. To Astrid it felt like they were walking a prisoner to their cell, due to how nquiet it was and the clear tension between Drago and everyone else, which was very justified. He was the one who killed Stoick, and almost killed both Hiccup and Valka. Not to mention the rest of Berk that was endangered during that whole thing. But part of her wants to believe that maybe that's all in the past, hopefully. Maybe Drago came to amend things, or maybe he's working with Grimmel.. It is almost perfect timing after all. Astrid drops the thought, deciding it is best not to over think anything.

Hiccup opens the door and the five of them head inside. Hiccup sits down in his seat, and both Astrid and Drago sit down at the table. Another silent moment dawns on the three, as they all stare at eachother.

"So, you said there was stuff we needed to know" Hiccup gestures to Drago, "So please, tell me everything we need to know" He finishes and Drago takes off his leather cloak, setting it on his lap.

"Thank you" Drago says, and Hiccup nods, gesturing for him to continue on.

"I was doing my weekly sailing on a boat I kind of had to borrow from you guys, sorry for that by the way" Drago shrugs his shoulders at it, but Hiccup glares at him.

"Which boat did you 'borrow'?" Hiccup asks.

"The blue one you had near I think the arena area"

"That was my personal boat!" Astrid jumps out of her seat. Hiccup had three total boats made for them. Two of them were smaller ones meant for two people. One was blue and one was black. The third boat was the boat they used most of the time, the large light brown one that could hold quite a few people. They haven't had many chances to sail, last using the larger one to visit Toothless and Stormfly.

"I needed a boat to get food, I'll return it soon enough" Astrid shoots a sharp glare at him, but Drago shrugs it off.

"Might as well keep the damn thing at this point" She sits back down with her arms crossed.

"Continue with your story" Hiccup gestures.

"Yes, well I went to the local markets for supplies I can't find on my own. And while I was there I was greeted by an old friend" Drago takes a piece of paper from the table along with a pencil, and draws a map to show the direction to the area he met his friend.

"He was telling me about how he was happy to see me and wanted me to join on his final quest of his" Hiccup and Astrid both look at each other with a confused look.

"Who was your old friend?" Astrid asks.

"Grimmel the Grisely"

"And what quest does he want to take on?" Astrid asks and Drago looks at her with a slightly worried expression on his face.

"To take down the Chief of Berk along with his Night Fury" Drago states and Hiccup shakes his head,

"Why both me and the Night Fury? Its been seven years for Thor's sake!" Hiccup stands up and prances around the room, frustrated.

"I knew there was a threat, I just knew it" Hiccup yells to the wall of the kitchen. Drago turns his chair to face him once again.

"Because Hiccup, he has a grudge against the both of you" Drago stands up as well. "Many years ago, me and Grimmel were good friends, even if we had different methods of what we wanted to do. I wanted a dragon army to take over anyone in my path, he wanted all dragons to be killed for the sake of humanity" Drago sighs, "Me and him had never experienced defeat at all in our lives, yet somehow, a very young Chief was able to soundly defeat us both" Drago gestures at Hiccup.

"Then why would he come back here?" Hiccup asks, sitting back down and running a hand through his beard. Hiccup did not want this. Everything was perfect just a few weeks ago. He just saw his best friend, there were no threats to his people and everything was completely fine. Now everything was starting to tumble down.

"He has never lost in his life until you Hiccup. The feeling of defeat is starting to make him lose his mind, and he wants nothing more than to rectify it and defeat you and your dragon"

"Dragons don't live here anymore" Hiccup spits out.

"Now that is something I have known" Drago says.

"And what about you? You said Grimmel didn't like defeat and wants revenge or whatever, but what about you?" Astrid asks with uncertainty painted on her face.

"At first I wanted the same thing, but after a few months of living here I have come to enjoy retirement. It really is great living a life without many worries" Drago closes his eyes for a moment, reflecting on the last few years silently. He gave up those needs of having to have a dragon army and take over everything in his path long ago. No more dragons, no more problems for him.

"Living here?" Astrid asks, confused.

"I have been living here since the day you guys made my Bewilderbeast retreat. I live over there on the Eastern trail" Hiccup's eyes snap open wide. The Eastern trail... The same trail Jack had gotten snared in that trap. Hiccup felt a connection being made. It would make perfect sense, Drago puts down the trap, then tries to make himself look innocent.

Hiccup jumps from his chair and moves to within an inch of Drago, with fury pouring out his face.

"You son of a bitch, you are the one who placed that trap down in the woods aren't you?" Hiccup stares at the man in front of him with nothing but anger.

"I have never owned any of Grimmel's darts to place such a trap Hiccup" Drago tries nudging Hiccup back a few inches, but Hiccup throws Drago's arm out of the way.

"You said he was an old friend god dammit, you could have gotten them if you wanted to" Hiccup screams, hands balled into tight fists.

"He is no friend of mine any more Hiccup!" Drago yells back. "And why not?""

"Because he is threatening this whole island. He is threatening my home as well here Hiccup! As I have said earlier, I am happy with my life as is. I can grow my few crops, enjoy peace and quiet for once in my life. I came here to tell you all this so you can be prepared, I would not risk my life coming here right now if I was on the other side" That seemed to cool Hiccup down slightly, as he relaxes his hands and takes a step back. He takes a deep breath and looks at Drago.

"You better not be lying about this or I swear to Tho-"

"I understand" Drago states simply. Hiccup nods and sits back down.

"So you said he wanted to take down his dragon too?" Astrid asks

"Yes, the Night Fury"

"Why?" Astrid looks at Drago with a confused look on her face.

"Isn't that why he came here the first time? To take down the Alpha?" Drago says and Hiccup leans over the table and rests his arms on it. It makes sense to him. Grimmel did not really want to harm anyone in the very beginning. It wasn't until Hiccup refused to give Toothless over that Grimmel resorted to doing it by any means necessary. Drago's story wasn't that hard to believe after all.

"But Toothless is hidden away where nobody can find him" There's no way Grimmel could possibly find the Hidden World.

"Toothless?" Drago tilts his head slightly.

"Retractable teeth" Astrid states.

"I was going to say, there is no way that dragon is Toothless" Drago lets out a heavy laugh, but within a moment his expression returned instantly returned to normal.

"But nothing is impossible when it comes to Grimmel. I hope you're right, but do not be one hundred percent sure of yourself on this" Drago stands up and takes a step towards the door.

"I believe in you to stop him should he come. If you need me, you'll know where to find me" Drago gives them both a nod of farewell and walks out the door, heading in the direction of the Eastern trail, where his supposed house is. Hiccup doesn't attempt to stop him. As much as Drago deserves something for what he did years ago, he also came here with a direct warning. To help the village. Hiccup's village.

Drago earned peace for as long as he stays in his hut over there.

Astrid stands up and walks over to Hiccup, and wraps her arms around his shoulders, hugging him from behind.

"Thank you for stopping me earlier" Hiccup says and Astrid kisses his forehead.

"What are we going to do now?" Astrid asks and Hiccup sighs.

"We prepare for the worst, and we hope for the best" He stands up and hugs her tightly. This isn't something he wants to have to deal with. All Hiccup wants is for everyone to leave Berk alone. Why can't there just be peace? All that finds them is war.

Brenda storms in through the front door and Hiccup lets go of Astrid and turns his attention to the little one in front of him.

"Well hello there" Hiccup says with a cheeky smile to him. Brenda ignores it and loudly starts talking, "I saw the big man leave! Did you beat him up? I bet you did!" Brenda says, punching the air and adding a few kicks, trying to mimic what she thinks her father either has done or what he should have done. Hiccup shakes his head and chuckles.

"No, I did not fight the big man" Brenda frowns

"Why not? I would have. I would have showed him who is boss" Brenda says while puffing her chest out. She always did think she could beat pretty much anyone up. And ever since she started beating Eret in training, she thinks she is the toughest person in all of Berk's history.

Maybe one day Brenda.

"Because, a Chief must try his best to avoid conflict, not start one for no reason" Brenda frowns again.

"But.. But you were about to kill him yourself!" She protests and Hiccup lets out a loud sigh.

"Yes Brenda, I was. But that was me not thinking it through, something you cannot afford to do as a Chief" Hiccup says and Brenda shrugs her shoulders.

"I still would have done something, teach him to mess with my village" She chops the air in front of and smiles proudly. Hiccup rubs his hand in her hair and smiles.

"I did do something, I did the right thing" Brenda pouts slightly. Such a angry child.

After a while they finally all settle down a bit. The stress of the day sort of fading. Hiccup had been sitting in his desk ever since Drago left, and trying to tell Brenda killing anything that walks is not a good thing to want to do.

Hiccup had a stack of maps and papers in front of him and sprawled on top of his desk, with different ways Grimmel could possibly come and notes to go over with Astrid and the other few people who Hiccup goes to for their opinions on larger plans. That list includes Valka, who helps with more of the economical things or how to keep things in order during times of panic. Gobber, who was just good for advice in general. And Eret, who Hiccup really only came to when things were going to get ugly. It always helped going to people like them for help when Hiccup needed it.

Hiccup sets down his pencil and looks at one his maps, which to him makes the most sense. Drago said he was at a nearby island, which there was really only one that was really close. Which could possibly show which direction Grimmel could possibly come from.

A door opens behind him, and Hiccup turns around and sees Jack in the doorway, looking at Hiccup with a curious look on his face.

"Yes son?" Hiccup asks and Jack looks down at the floor in front of him. "I just wanted to see what you are doing"

"Right, come here" Hiccup gestures for Jack to come over, and a huge smile comes over Jack as he runs over to his father. Hiccup picks him up and sets him on his lap. Jack takes a moment to look at the papers in front of him, inspecting the map that is placed in front of him.

"What is this dad?" Jack asks, pointing to the map that Hiccup was looking at a moment ago. "That is a likely path that our enemy might attack from" Jack takes another moment to look, tracing the arrows with his fingers as they point towards their island. Their village also has a arrow pointing to the eastern trail with circles all over the place over there.

"What are the circles for?" Hiccup points to the circles in question, "These are places our friend from earlier might possibly be living" Hiccup answers and Jack nods.

"Is he our friend?" Jack asks, looking up at Hiccup with large, curious, very green eyes.

"Maybe not, but for now he sure isn't an enemy" Jack rubs his chin, thinking for a moment.

"Why just for now?" He asks. Hiccup takes a deep breath.

"Because he used to be our enemy Jack" Hiccup answers and Jack doesn't move from his curious stare he's had this whole time. After a silent moment, Hiccup assumes Jack was looking for a more in depth answer,

"He tried controlling all the dragons, and came to our old village to take the ones we had" Hiccup adds and Jack once again takes a moment to process it. "He then took control of Toothless-"

"The cool one we saw! He was amazing! Oh- Sorry, continue" Jack interrupts with a smile on his face.

"yes that one, anyway, He ordered him to uh- Kill me" Jack's smiles fades, instead turning to a slight frown. Hiccup runs his hands through Jack's hair and takes another deep breath as Hiccup tries to keep the sadness in him. This isn't a day he likes remembering.

"Then what happened?" Jack asks and Hiccup looks down at Jack,

"Toothless came towards me, and was being controlled to kill. Just as he was about to fire at me, yo- your" A tear falls down Hiccup's cheek, "Your Grandfather pushed me out of the way and took the hit instead" Jack realizes what Hiccup meant. Jack hugs Hiccup as tight as his little arms can manage.

"it's okay son. But that is why we have to be wary of him" Hiccup says and Jack nods against him. Jack lets go of the hug and returns to looking at the papers. He looks at the notes Hiccup wrote. Hiccup wipes the tear off his cheek and pulls the notes closer to them.

"Here, lets go over these" Hiccup says as he starts pointing towards the first words on the page in front of them.

...

Far away

...

"Ugh, we have been sailing for hours, what are we doing out here in the middle of nowhere?" Griselda asks as she takes a bite out of her bread she had brought with her. Grimmel's gaze doesn't move from the water in front of them. They had been sailing nonstop for almost fifteen hours at this point. Why didn't they just fly there? He has his Deathgrippers on this large boat anyway, so why waste the time and just fly? Griselda shrugs the thought off and takes another bite of her bread.

"It will not be much longer till we can stop sailing, you can stop complaining now" Grimmel says, with the same cold tone he always uses. Griselda wishes that he would give up all this nonsense. She wished he did so years ago. Maybe if he would have stopped doing all of this work, and acting so heartless, maybe they could have... been something.

Griselda won't lie to herself, she has always had some feeling for him throughout the time they had known each other. She will never tell him that ever again, but deep down she cared for the heartless man in front of her. That night they were waiting out a storm feels like it was a dream. When he held her tightly and for once showed something of compassion and a full heart. Sure he was a bit nice to her after that, and they were able to sneak around a few times when he wasn't busy hunting, but she wanted more. He was just too driven to take care of his 'duties', killing dragons for the sake of sport.

She takes a sip of water and shrugs the thought off. Getting stuck in her feelings is the exact way to get killed in this type of situation.

"what are we even doing out here?" She asks as she takes one final gulp of her water and throws the cup on the ground. Grimmel finally turns around and walks towards her. usually whenever he did that, he did so with an angered expression, like she annoyed him in some way. But for some reason, his expression was a lot softer this time, almost friendly.

"We have arrived my friend" She didn't have time to argue the "friend" part of that sentence because she was wowed by the view in front of her. In front of her was a waterfall,

A huge waterfall. In the middle of the ocean too. It was a beautiful sight, she couldn't help but stare at it.

"What- What is this?" She asks and he rests a hand on her shoulder.

"The Hidden world Griselda. The place where all the dragons went" He answers with a prideful smile on his face.

"Now, we have an Alpha to tick off" He throws the anchor down and takes a seat on the bench beside her.

His plan is finally kicking off, she just hopes he is right about all of this.

...

**Again sorry for posting late, I am still sick, but I am dedicated for you guys. So we had a lot going on here. And I must say, Hiccup brewing all that emotion out is one of my favorite things about this chapter. I mean, I would want to kill Drago too if he killed my father, tried killing me and tried taking all their dragons away. what a twat, but lets hope he finally turned a new leaf in this story. As for Grimmel, his plan really is a far fetched one. But let me know how you think his plan here will succeed or fail! That's my question for you guys. Anyway thank you guys for reading and being the most amazing fans ever! See you all next week!**

**Coming next week, Chapter 7- Welcome Home **


	7. Welcome Home

**Welcome back my friends! I am finally over this sickness so we are back full steam ahead. I am glad everyone seemed to enjoy the last chapter, having Drago make a surprising return, and I can promise you, you have not seen the last of that man. And then Grimmel goes to the Hidden World and seems to be starting up his plan and all. That will be explained soon enough. This chapter is probably going to make a lot of people smile happily and be upset at the same time. But the only way to find out is to read on... so have fun :D.**

**...**

Chapter 7- Welcome Home

_"Dad, what is this?" A young Hiccup asks, pointing at the map on the table. Stoick picks him up and sets him on his lap, as Hiccup looks at the map, then up at Stoick._

_"I am preparing a defense for the village son" Stoick says, pointing at the shield drawn in front of Berk. Hiccup lets out a childish laugh, thinking how funny it is to give an island a shield._

_"But why?" Hiccup asks curiously, with slight confusion painted on his face. Stoick smiles and points to the part of the map where a few boats were drawn up._

_"An enemy is planning an attack on us son" Stoick starts, dragging his fingers from the boats to Berk, "And it is a Chief's job to prepare his people for anything, regardless of how big or how little such a threat is" Hiccup moves his fingers in the same line Stoick just did. Stoick picks Hiccup up and gets off the chair, walking out the door and onto the front lawn they had. Their house was slightly elevated from the rest of the island, giving them a view of most of their village and of the sunset that started forming._

_"It is my job as Chief to protect us Hiccup" Stoick points to the houses in front of him. Hiccup looks on in amazement. The village looked amazing with the sunset hitting the houses, and fires being lit in said houses. It was always an amazing sight to see._

_"And one day, when you're all grown up" Stoick pokes Hiccup's chest, right above his heart, "That job, will be passed on to you" He finishes and Hiccup nods. Being a Chief sounded hard to him. _

_"Do you think I would be a good Chief?" Hiccup asks as he looks up at his father. Stoick smiles and looks out towards the sunset._

_"You are going to be one of the best, I just see it" Hiccup lets out a huge smile._

_"Just remember son, A Chief must always protect his own"_

_"I won't forget dad" Stoick kisses the top of Hiccup's head._

_"Good. You are going to do amazing things son. Just never stop believing in yourself" Stoick says as they start heading back inside._

_"I love you dad" Hiccup says as they enter the house. Hiccup's eyes start to feel heavy as Stoick carries him up the stairs._

_"I love you too son"_

Hiccup opens his eyes and lets out a long yawn. He stretches for a moment before sitting up. The sun has almost fully risen, indicating that he overslept. He looks over and sees Astrid, still very much asleep with her hair in such a mess and laying face down into her pillow. Astrid always wakes up first. He maybe managed to wake up before her about three or four times during their entire relationship. It was quite a accomplishment if he woke up before her, as she is always up at the crack of dawn.

He puts on his prosthetic and gets up, walking out of the bedroom and into the hallway. He hears someone loudly snoring, which can only possibly mean that Brenda also managed to sleep in. She also never sleeps in. Jack doesn't either for that matter. Hiccup is the only one that enjoys sleeping when the sun is up.

He walks into the kitchen and opens up one of his notebooks that shows his daily tasks for the day. His list was fairly empty today, not really having much of anything to do. Hiccup sighs and closes it, realizing he has a day free of doing any planned tasks. But most tasks of a Chief are usually unplanned anyway, so it really did not make much of a difference.

Hiccup walks out the door to their house and looks around for a moment. A quiet day outside, with almost nobody outside. Maybe all of Berk has slept in, and somehow Hiccup managed to wake up before anybody. It was a funny thought at least.

"Morning Chief, I was waiting for you to wake up" Eret says, waving as he approaches him.

"Good morning Eret, what brings you here?"Hiccup asks as he takes a step down the front set of stairs leading to his house. It was only a few steps. but since Hiccup's house laid on a slight hill, they had to be built.

"Think we can take a walk? Got some things I want to talk about to ya" Eret asks and Hiccup nods, gesturing Eret to lead the way. They start heading down the dirt pathway leading to the cliff side, which was the main pathway of the village. Most of the dirt roads were connected to this one, as this road started at the cliff side, to the Haddock house, all the way to the great hall, and finally ending at the Northern hunting trail. All of the other paths start from the main path, leading down to where the other houses were.

They make a left and head down one of the paths that have houses on either side of it. Snotlout, the twins and Fishlegs lived on this road, as well as some of the other villagers. As they walk down the road they see Fishlegs outside, who spots them and walks over to them.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Fishleg's asks as he comes up to them.

"Just going for a walk, to wherever Eret is planning on walking to" Hiccup says and Eret nods behind him. "Can I tag along? I have a few questions for you" Fishleg's asks Hiccup. Eret very quietly sighs, wanting a one on one type of talk with the Chief.

"Uh.. yeah sure that's fine, come on" Hiccup says, and Fishleg's nods and heads back to where he was a moment ago. He talks to Ruffnut for a moment and gives her a kiss goodbye before returning to the two men standing there in the middle of the pathway.

"Okay, let's go" He states and Eret continues walking forward and they both follow. Another few minutes pass by and they approach the opening to the western trail. This trail was unlike the other two. The northern trail was best used for hunting or hiking, and the Eastern trail was good for camping or going to a fresh water lake, where some villagers choose to clean themselves. The Western trail however, was good for the scenery and open plains that it led to. It leads to the same area where the dragons embarked on their quest to the Hidden World. It was a place almost all Berkians came to at least once a year, to remember that fateful day. And to remember the friends that they had to say goodbye to.

They enter the treeline that surrounds the Western trail and walk forward.

"So what is all these questions and such that you guys needed a walk to ask or say?" Hiccup asks, gesturing to the two men in front of him. Eret shrugs his shoulders,

"It didn't need a walk, but I figured why not get up and enjoy a nice walk". Which would make sense. The village is still pretty asleep and it was a nice day outside. It's just so odd that people are sleeping in. Most of Berk are early risers.

"Yeah, I'm glad to have tagged along. Been a while since I have been down this trail" Fishlegs says as they all continue walking. The western trail was dense in trees, but also had quite a few clearings scattered throughout, including the cliff where the dragons were last seen seven years ago. they approach a fork and head towards the right side of it.

"But anyway, what was Drago doing here yesterday?" Hiccup went silent for a moment. He did not want to continue pondering this right now. He was conflicted, he did not know what to do with what Drago told him, or even if it is worth believing in what he is saying.

After a few moments of silence, Hiccup sighed,

"I still am having trouble processing it, but it seems he came here to warn us" Both Eret and Fishlegs stop walking and turn their bodies to face Hiccup. Hiccup looks up at the sky above the treeline,

"He told us Grimmel was planning a attack on both us and the hidden world" Fishlegs rubs his chin, thinking for a moment.

"I can understand attacking us, but why the dragons?" Fishlegs asks and Hiccup shrugs his shoulders.

"Maybe he has as much of a vendetta against Toothless as he does us" He suggests. It wouldn't be completely out of the question. Grimmel seems crazy enough to try and attack the Alpha of dragons, just for the sake of making himself feel better.

"If there's anything I learned in life, it's that attacking an alpha is never easy. Trust me I have tried attacking your mother and her Bewilderbeast when they kept freeing the damn dragons" Eret says, and Hiccup shakes his head and chuckles.

"I don't know Chief, it could be a trap. Drago and Grimmel did have a partnership a while back" Hiccup pauses for a minute. This is what made him so conflicted about all of this. It could be a trap. Maybe Drago is playing innocent and trying to lead Hiccup away from his people to finish what he started... or... or..

"Or maybe he finally found peace in himself" Hiccup suggests and Eret shakes his head in doubt.

"Hiccup, this is Drago we are talking about" Eret rests his hand on Hiccup's shoulder, "He isn't exactly someone who would help someone like that, especially someone who was an enemy of his" Eret finishes. Hiccup shrugs the hand off his shoulders and continues walking forward.

"It would make sense though, seeing as there aren't any dragons anymore" Fishleg's intervenes. Eret shrugs the thought off.

"This is Drago, Drago Bludvist, the craziest man in the world, maybe even worse than Grimmel" Eret argues. Hiccup doesn't even react to him, and walks to the clearing where the cliff is. "That man does not know peace you guys" Eret continues. Maybe a few years ago that would have been without a doubt the answer they would have came to. But the dragons are long gone. He came to them unarmed and did not want anything in terms of a fight, even when Hiccup himself was trying his best to pick one.

Hiccup even threatened his life, and all he did was keep his hands up in the air asking for peace. If it were eight years ago Drago would be trying his best to fight back.

"But he has no reason to want a war any longer. No more dragons, and no one left in his own army" Hiccup says, and Fishlegs nods in agreement. Eret however, remains doubting their optimism.

"Don't be so sure of yourself Chief. I had to work for the guy for a while, I know what he is like" Hiccup shakes his head and looks down from the cliff, where there are rocks all around the base of the cliff.

"Who knows. What we do know is that" Hiccup takes a breath, "A war is coming to us" He turns around and faces his two friends.

"And we are going to need all the help we can get" He finishes and they all fall silent. frustration growing inside Hiccup. War. Something Hiccup has spent the last Fourteen years trying his best to avoid, but no matter how hard he tried war happened regardless. It did not matter how big or how small that war was, he wanted to avoid all of it. He did not want to fight the Red Death, but Stoick forced his hand and he did it. He did not want to fight Drago, he wanted to talk it through, but Drago forced his hand. He did not want to have any conflict with Grimmel, instead wishing he never came altogether, but Grimmel forced his hand anyway. Then the raid from a few years ago, Hiccup was once again forced into action.

And now Grimmel is coming around again. Is there ever a break in all this was all Hiccup was trying to answer inside his own thoughts.

A roar breaks the silence and all three of them turn their heads to the direction of the sound. It came from the clouds facing the cliffside.

"What-" Eret pauses in confusion. "What was that?" he asks and he does not get an answer. Another roar can be heard, and Hiccup recognizes it. It did not sound like a angry roar, more like a call for help. But the sound of it, was so familiar.

A small dot can be seen in the sky, coming towards them. It was still far away, and as they focus on it they hear another roar.

The dot is getting bigger, and it starts taking shape. Hiccup's jaw drops.

"It- It can't be" Fishlegs says and no one answers him either. A fourth roar is heard as they see the outline of a dragon. It is struggling to fly it seems. It looks injured, hurt. One more tiny dot can be seen next to it. As the dragon comes closer, they all look on as the identity of it is revealed to them. Hiccup is in disbelief.

"Toothless!" Hiccup yells as he waves his arms in the air, signaling for him to land near them. Toothless's head shoots towards them and he makes a sound that sounds like a groan. Not an annoyed one, but a groan one would make when you are in pain.

Toothless makes it to the cliff side and collapses to the ground. A baby night fury collapses next to him as well. They all run to Toothless. Hiccup falls down on his knees next to his old friend.

"What are you doing here bud?" Hiccup asks and Toothless opens his eyes and nudges his head at Hiccup. Hiccup looks down and sees a spot of blood on the grass.

"Bud, what happened to you?" Toothless lets out a sad garble, trying to speak to Hiccup.

...

Earlier that day

"How positive are you that this is going to work?" Griselda asks. Grimmel keeps his attention to the waterfall. They had been sitting there for a short while now, waiting for the Alpha to come out like he normally does. Or at least that is what he has told her. Who knows what actually happens here. Maybe he just brought them out here praying that the alpha or something comes out of the opening to show itself.

It better happen quick, because she is now patient.

"How do we even know that he is going to come out?" She asks and once again he pays almost no attention to her.

She doesn't want to be here, the least he can do is be nice to her and answer her questions. She grows impatient and walks up next to him and taps him on the shoulders. He still ignores her and looks on, waiting for something to happen. She frowns and taps again. Still nothing.

Tap

Tap

Tap

Tap

"What?!" He shouts, and she takes a step backwards, but takes a defensive posture afterwards. He turns around and faces her for the first time since they arrived.

"Why bring me out here if you won't discuss anything with me?" She asks and he rubs the space between his eyebrows, obviously frustrated.

"Just in case I need help. I got no one else to trust" He states. Which in a way made sense to her. He never really had friends. Just the small group of her, the two other warlords, and Drago. Other than that, no one else was willing to get close enough to him to care.

"I can see why" She mutters under her breath as she walks to the back of the boat. He sighs and stares at her for a moment, before turning around and facing back to the waterfall. She was the only one he can trust. He may act cold, and maybe in a way that is something he can't control anymore.

But to him, he in a way, did need her for this all to work.

Both the Night and Light fury come out from the waterfall for their flight they make around the waterfall. The dragons seem to pay no attention to the boat, and it looks as if they don't even know they are there. They aren't exactly close to the waterfall, but they sure are within eyesight. Griselda looks on from the back of the boat, with her knife in hand. Her knife was a curved one. It had purple crystals on the handle, and the blade itself was black. She had it made a while ago while raiding a Southern village, making a deal with their Blacksmith.

Grimmel looks behind him and gestures for her to keep her head down. "Stay quiet, if I need you be ready" He whispers and she nods, knife held close to her chest. He gave her back her knife during their trip here. She had many thoughts on using it against him, but it would do no good. He had her brother. She wouldn't get far before his Deathgrippers killed her and her brother eventually as well. She had to play nice.

But once both she and her brother were free, he was going to pay one way or another.

Grimmel whistles a signal to one of the Deathgrippers, who flies away from the boat in the opposite direction of the waterfall. He signals the other two that came with him to be ready.

The Furies fly around the opening of the waterfall, seemingly enjoying their joy flight together. The Light fury does her disappearing trick, and they both fly upwards once she reappears. Grimmel loads his crossbow with a purple dart and aims it at the two dragons. Once they steadied their flight in a straight line he fires, and it hits the female right in the neck. She fights it for a moment, but sleep overcomes her and she starts falling out of the sky. Toothless roars and starts darting towards her. Grimmel smirks and whistles. The two Deathgrippers fly and snatch the Light Fury before Toothless could get there.

Toothless shoots a warning shot at one of the Deathgrippers holding up his mate. He growls and attempts commanding them to leave, but they do not listen. Just as he is about to shoot again, the third Deathgripper from earlier comes from behind and stings him in the leg, giving him a large cut. Toothless turns his body around and fires at the Deathgripper. It retreats back to Grimmel's boat, and Toothless stares directly at Grimmel, who has been sitting there with a smirk on his face.

"Listen here Alpha, one wrong move and she will die" He says and Toothless grows as his snout has a light line of smoke coming out. He looks every bit as pissed as Grimmel was hoping for.

"If any other dragons interfere she will die, do you understand?" Grimmel asks. Toothless's spine plates start turning blue.

"Now, I have a mission to complete. Why don't you go back to your old best friend for me? Make my job easy for me" He states. Toothless roars and flies right towards him. He steps out of the way and the Deathgripper flies up and knocks Toothless out of the sky and onto the other side of the boat. Grimmel whistles for the other Deathgrippers. He and Griselda hop on one of them as the other one carries the Light Fury.

Toothless attempts to fly to them but the Deathgripper grabs him by the tail and slams him back down on the boat, making a dent in the floorboard. Toothless gets back up and shakes his head. They both start circling each other, roaring at one another. After a few moments, Toothless darts to the Deathgripper and tries tackling it down, but the Deathgripper overpowers him and sends him back down to the floorboard. Toothless rolls over and shoots a plasma blast, missing the Deathgripper and hitting the back of the boat, which ignites the wood into flames.

Toothless lunges towards the other dragon once again, shooting a blast while doing so. The blast hits his target and knocks him down. Toothless hops on top of the dragon and prepares to fire again, but the Deathgripper stings Toothless right under his wing, also giving him a dose of the venom in the process. Toothless falls down onto the boat, and his eyes start getting heavy.

The Deathgripper gets back up and stretches himself, and starts walking to Toothless, who is still fighting the venom. He surprisingly hasn't fallen asleep, but is clearly fighting it. The boat finally begins sinking from the fire that started in the rear of it. The dragon prepares his stinger once again, but as he prepares to sting Toothless again, a few brightly colored spikes come flying down, with one of them hitting the Deathgripper in the back. It roars and looks at what fired at him and sees a Nadder coming to the rescue.

Stormfly lands on the sinking boat and nudges Toothless's head to get up. After a moment he finally gets back to his senses, seeing the boat halfway underwater, and the Deathgripper right next to him with Stormfly sqwuaking at the threat.

Toothless manages to get up and face the Deathgripper. Stormfly nudges him again and looks at the direction Grimmel has went, it was as if she was saying 'Go, I got this'. Toothless hesitates, but flies upward into the sky. It feels a lot harder to do so, as the place he was stung at has swelled under his wing, making it hurt to fly. He shrugs it off and heads off to where his old home used to be. His final sight of the area was Stromfly sending more spikes towards the Deathgripper as the boat finally submerges into the water.

A little ways into the journey, Toothless sees one of his babies also flying in the same direction, but is slowly descending, most likely from fatigue. Toothless speeds towards him and flies slightly under him so he can fall on his dad's back.

Toothless continues on the course he had set. Preparing himself for another fight.

...

Hiccup has been sitting here next to Toothless ever since he fell asleep from exhaustion. Eret and Fishleg's both walked back to the village, saying that they would send someone back later on if Hiccup had not returned to the village.

He had been sitting there, with Toothless's baby in his arms. He was almost fully black except for a white line in the middle of his head, and a little white area on both of his ears. He had also fallen asleep pretty much as soon as he landed as well.

Toothless slowly opens his eyes and sees Hiccup next to him. He purrs very quietly and catches Hiccup's attention.

"Good morning there sleepy head. You had been knocked out for quite a while" Hiccup says as he pets the baby. Toothless tries to get up but ends up falling back down.

"Easy bud, you are very sore and swollen, you could use some rest right now" Toothless seems to make some kind of noise in disagreement, instead trying to get up again.

"Well, good to see the Chief isn't dead" Hiccup looks over and sees Snotlout walking towards him. Hiccup gives him a welcoming nod as Snotlout sits down on a rock in front of Hiccup.

"Wow, been so long since I have seen a dragon. Almost forgot what they looked like" Snotlout jokes and Hiccup chuckles.

"Yeah, certainly isn't good news though. There's got to be a reason as to why he came all the way here" Hiccup suggests and Toothless nods behind him. "We will figure it out later though, it has already been a long day" Hiccup finishes. The sun was still bright outside. Probably not even halfway through the day yet.

They both hear a sqauk and then a thud coming from the other side of the treeline, as well as a second thud. They all shoot their heads to the source of the noise, and they hear trees rustling.

Snotlout picks up a stick to defend himself with, but as he does he sees a Nadder.

Stormfly to be exact. She notices Toothless laying down and runs over to him, nudging him with her large head once again. Snotlout looks back over and sees a second dragon. He drops his stick.

"Hookfang!" Snotlout yells in excitement as he runs over to his old friend. He hugs Hookfang's head and holds tightly. "been so long since we were kings of dragon racing" Snotlout looks over and sees Hiccup, Toothless and Stormfly all shooting him a glare. He laughs it off and turns his attention back to Hookfang.

"We got to get back to the village and let them know of this" Hiccup says as he stands up, waking up the baby in the process. He puts the baby on the ground gently next to his father.

This is going to be an eventful day.

**I am so sorry for the late update :(, life is really getting in the way but I promise I will not stop posting this story. I will just have to make more time to write, which will be a ton easier once I finally move into my own place. Anyway, I hope you all enojoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. What do you think is going to happen next chapter? See you guys next time!**

**Coming next week, Chapter 8- "For Old Times Sake"**


	8. For Old Times Sake

**Aaaaand we are back once again. I am no longer sick so yay! Also Toothless is back, which was what everyone was waiting for. I was asked waaaay back in chapter one "How is this a sequel without the dragons?" Well, there are dragons my friend. Anyway, having Toothless back makes me happy, and makes everyone happy. Including Grimmel, who has his way over complicated plan to get his revenge. Oh well. Anyway as always, I hope you enjoy reading this chapter just as much as i enjoyed writing it for you guys. Enjoy!**

Chapter 8- For Old Times Sake

This day started off so peacefully. Hiccup got to sleep in, pretty much everyone got to sleep in, and there was not much to do today besides going over some papers he had to go through later on in the day. What was thought to be a simple day, turned into one of the most complicated days he has had since he became Chief.

Toothless was here, and none of this made sense. Because why would Toothless come back? Sure, it was great to see him again, but he has an entire world filled with dragons down below. There is no need to come here for a happy visit. Except he was injured. Seemingly had some type of conflict with another dragon, which would not make sense since he is the alpha.

It confused the hell out of Hiccup, none of this made sense at all.

He put down his pencil and faced the people sitting in front of him. Him, Astrid, Snotlout, Valka, Eret, Fishlegs and Gobber had all sat down to discuss this situation. They had yet to truly address the situation to the rest of the village, deciding to discuss it between the group of the best course of action to follow.

"This definitely is puzzling as to why he came back here" Valka says. And that is about as far as any thought between any of them has gone. It was puzzling, it was confusing, it did not seem right. They were running in circles.

"Maybe he got attacked by a horde of dragons?" Fishlegs suggests.

"He is the alpha, and lives with millions of dragons who'd die fighting for him. I doubt it would be that" Eret argues. Hiccup just sits there and listens to their suggestions, not that any of them have been helpful.

"There is a chance that he had gotten lost and came back here" Gobber says, and everyone else in the room shakes their head.

"He is one of the smartest dragons out there. No way in Thor does he forget where he lives" Astrid says back. She had also been relatively silent during this discussion.

"That spot his has under his wing looks like he was stabbed there, like a sting or something. Can't think of any dragon who would do that though" Fishlegs says, and a thought runs through Hiccup's head and his eyes go wide. How had they not thought of this beforehand? Hiccup stands up from the table and all eyes go right to him.

"Only one dragon I can possibly think of that would sting the Alpha. It would be the only dragons he can't control"

"Babies?" Snotlout asks and Hiccup slaps his own forehead.

"Deathgrippers Snotlout, Deathgrippers" Hiccup says and Snotlout shoots him a glare and crosses his arms.

"baby Deathgrippers exist you know" Snotlout mutters under his breath, Hiccup rolls his eyes.

"What are you saying exactly Chief?" Gobber asks.

"What I am saying is, maybe Grimmel himself found the Hidden World and found a way to make Toothless retreat". It did not sound like something out of the realm of possibility. Grimmel was probably crazy enough to do it.

"How would he even manage to find the hidden world? It's at the edge of the world surrounded by water and water and water" Astrid asks, looking at Hiccup. Hiccup sits back down and goes silent, looking up at the ceiling thinking.

"It wouldn't be impossible. We found it before" They all go silent. Grimmel attacking the home of the dragons was not a pleasant thought.

"It still doesn't make sense, why go after him?" Astrid asks out to the table. It really didn't make any sense to attack any dragon. They were gone, any personal vendetta against them should have been left years ago when they left. But to Hiccup, this all made some sort of sense to him.

"He's coming after me to avenge a loss right?" Everyone nods. They all knew Grimmel wanted Hiccup dead. "Maybe he feels the same way about Toothless". Fishlegs stands up,

"Don't Deathgrippers have a venom that puts people to sleep? If he got stung then Grimmel would have had a huge opportunity to take him out of the picture". Another silence dawns over the group, as has been the case this whole time. But, at least there was progress in this.

"From a strategic standpoint, it would not make sense to have him retreat here" Eret insists. Another solid point made. Hiccup did not totally need Toothless to take him down last time. Sure it made things easier, but one could argue Hiccup could have done it himself. Why would Grimmel stack the odds against him?

"You're right" Valka says, "But Grimmel does always have a plan for everything".

"A plan to get himself killed!" Snotlout points out. Another brilliant thought comes to Hiccup's mind.

"Or maybe he's setting a distraction" All eyes point to the Chief. "Think of it guys, he makes Toothless come back here, we all turn our attention to that" He takes a breath, "So he can come right up when we are busy with something else".

"Then that would mean he would be coming here sooner than we had hoped" Astrid says, and Hiccup gives her a nod.

"We must not let our guard down because Toothless is here" Hiccup states, shaking his head at the stone table in front of him. "We must prepare ourselves for a war with Grimmel one last time" He finishes.

They all sit there for a short while longer, talking about other topics at large. Like how the annual storm season is coming. Every year when the summer first starts, multiple storms usually happen for a few weeks. Some years are worse than others, but for the most part they bring a ton of force. Sometimes a few buildings will be damaged or destroyed, and other times its just a large thunderstorm that doesn't do much but be loud and let down a ton of rain. One year during the season, Snotlout's whole roof came off and winded up being found in the ocean the next morning. Another time, a boat was found on the island that wasn't even from Berk, which goes to show how powerful some of those storms can come out to be.

After the meeting ends Hiccup ends up being the final person to walk out, as per usual. He finished up writing the final papers from today and put them on the shelf he normally puts them in at the end of the day. He wrote all the notes he needed to about Grimmel, the upcomming storm season, and how exactly they want to plan out the upcoming fishing season. The fishing season was a very tricky one. Technically you can fish any time during the year, but the best time to fish is directly after the storm season, as that is when all the fish come closer to the land to breed.

He walks out and sees Brenda and Toothless playing around in the grass area in front of the hall. Hiccup stops and watches on. Brenda runs towards Toothless and jumps on his back "I got you! Yield to me!" Toothless sells it and falls down on the ground. Brenda stands up on his back and raises her hands up in victory

"I have slayed this mighty beast!" Her celebration lasts only a moment, as Toothless rolls over and she falls onto the ground with him over top of her. He stares at her with his pupils as tiny slits, and she glares right back at him.

His pupils then become big and round and proceeds to lick her face, "Eww! Disgusting" She rolls over and frees herself from the onslaught of dragon licks. She wipes the slobber off her and glares at Toothless, who has a very playful expression on his face.

"Wow, the mighty Brenda loses? Never would have thought" Hiccup says while walking up to them. She throws a punch at his forearm and lands it. For being so small she hits fairly hard, but Hiccup laughs it off and shakes his hand on the top of her head, slightly messing up the top of her hair. She takes a step back and glares at him. She hates it when people mess up her hair, not that she kept her hair in any neat fashion. She had two very puffy pig tails and a few stands of hair in the front straight just like how Astrid used to do her hair long ago. It wasn't a bad hair style, it just always had some hairs going all over the place.

"I never lose, ever" She retorts. And surprisingly, she isn't too far off from the truth. She was a tough fighter, and was taught how to defend herself ever since she could hold a small axe. Jack was taught the same lessons, but he was never the greatest fighter to begin with, he was better at solving a problem with his brain, not his fists. Brenda can win anything for as long as it isn't something strategic. She has a long ways to go before she nails that one down.

"I would argue against that" Astrid says as she walks up behind them. Brenda shakes her head and sticks her tongue at Astrid. Toothless decides to insert himself into this and sticks his tongue right back at her. Astrid walks over to Toothless and rubs the top of his nose, he closes his eyes and leans into it.

"I just wonder what could have scared you off from your home" She says and he opens his eyes and looks around, before darting off towards the left side of the hall. The three of them sit there and watch him grab a large branch from one of the trees beside the great hall, and heading back to the dirt area they have been sitting in. He begins drawing in the dirt like he has enjoyed doing in the past.

"Do you think he can actually draw dad?" Brenda asks and Hiccup nods as he looks down at her.

"He was able to draw the face of his mate before, so who knows?" He responds. Toothless makes a oval looking shape and begins tracing some details. a couple of oddly shaped ears, hair that sticks straight up, and a large mouth.

"Not very helpful there bud" Hiccup says and Toothless glares at him, and starts drawing above the first drawing. The second drawing he makes tells a lot more than the first one did. It was long, and had a stinger at the tail, and two large fangs up front.

It makes sense to both Hiccup and Astrid.

"Grimmel found the hidden world didn't he?" Astrid asks to the general area, and Toothless nods and drops the branch before sitting in front of them.

"So where is the Light Fury?" Hiccup asks to Toothless, and the dragons eyes fall and a saddened expression falls on his face. After a moment, Toothless places his front leg on the first drawing. Hiccup's worst fear comes to mind. Grimmel once again took the Light Fury, to bring Toothless here.

"He.. He wanted you to come here.. it makes perfect sense" Hiccup walks up to the first drawing and kneels beside it. He glares at it.

"And why would he want that? You two seem to kick butt together from the stories I heard" Brenda says behind him. She always loved hearing war stories of them fighting side by side. It made her really look up to Hiccup more than she already did. Hearing how fearless he was in battle, something Brenda strives to one day show herself that as well.

"Because he believes he can beat us both together, and wants to prove it to himself" Hiccup stands back up and runs his hand through his beard. Over confident bastard of a man Grimmel was.

"Prideful man" Astrid says to Brenda, and Brenda shrugs.

"But we have Hookfang as well, so his plan must not have gone completely on schedule" Astrid says and Hiccup freezes. He forget to tell her... He forgot to tell her about Stormfly... He didn't have the time to really sit down and chat, he rushed and had the meeting. He didn't even mention Hookfang, Snotlout did.

Just as Hiccup is about to say something that all familiar sqwuak is heard. They all whip their heads around and see Stormfly walking right up to Toothless and once again nudging him with her head. Hiccup's eyes go right to Astrid's, as she stares at Stormfly and Toothless interacting with each other.

"How long has she been here?" Astrid asks a little too calmly. He was expecting her to be loud and furious, but instead she said that with no hint of the sorts. it only makes Hiccup feel more nervous. She get's nice and calm whenever she is absolutely livid but hasn't exploded.

"Astrid I was going to tell you, the meeting happened so fast and I-"

"How long" She pauses, "Has she been here?" She asks again and he lets out a defeated sigh.

"She flew in with Toothless and Hookfang" She turns her head to face him and shows him the look of anger and hurt in her eyes.

"You couldn't have just pulled me aside and let me know a part of my family is here Hiccup? You couldn't take five seconds to tell me that?" He takes a moment to think about what to say, but she cuts that off with a voice that's slightly louder than previously,

"But oh lets rush to Toothless because your feelings are more important than mine!" She says, and Hiccup knows that she knows that isn't true.

"Astrid, i'm sorry" He says but she shakes her head and storms off. Brenda stands there for a moment, looking at both her mother and her father. She just gives a nod and walks in a direction that isn't towards either of them and walks off. Hiccup sits there in silence, not knowing how to really feel about this. He should have told her yes, but it's not like he was holding information from her on purpose. They held a meeting to discuss a threat coming their way, and all of them trying to figure out the best way to plan a defense. Feelings come second to that, and Astrid has to know that.

Toothless purrs and nudges his head against Hiccup's back. Hiccup turns around and looks at his best friend. "Yes?" Toothless looks at him, then looks up at the sky. Hiccup knows exactly what he asking. A question that Hiccup has never really said no to, because it was the best way to spend a day. And Hiccup wasn't about to start saying no now.

"Sure bud, one more time for old times sake" He says and Toothless turns around and prepares for Hiccup to hop on.

"Wait a second bud, I need to grab something" Hiccup says and runs to his house, which of course is empty. Astrid is probably nowhere near anywhere Hiccup would go, Jack is with Gobber, and who knows what Brenda does with her spare time. Hiccup throws his Leather top off, which he normally wore during eventful days. Hiccup opens his closet where all his shirts and even old outfits were, including his old Black Scale suit. Hiccup stares at that suit for a moment, deciding whether or not to put it on, even though it needs to be fixed, something that he can do now with Toothless here.

He pushes all his shirts out of the way and finds a tall wooden box he had in the very back of his closet. He grabs it and puts it on the bed and opens it. It's a new leather suit designed for when Dragons came back, with built in wings and a mask to go with it.

"I have been waiting a long time to give this a test drive" he says to himself and puts the suit on. The main color of the suit is black, with light blue lines going around it. The chest plate had a light blue symbol of the Night Fury, something that took Hiccup forever to draw on it. The wings were like his Scale suit, with him being able to fly for a short time completely by himself. He grabs his mask and heads back out.

Toothless looks at him and gives him a gummy smile before running over to him. Hiccup hops on and before he knows it, he is heading up into the sky. The feeling of being in the sky is a feeling that never gets old to Hiccup. He missed it so much, the feeling of being so free up here in the sky. They fly past the cliff side and make a turn to the right to fly around the island. Toothless heads upward above the clouds and starts slowing down, and then heads into a fall downward. Hiccup leans against Toothless as they head down, and see the water coming closer. At the last possible moment Toothless spreads his wings and again start flying upward.

"Oh bud I can't tell you how much I missed this" Toothless garbles in a type of way that makes Hiccup think he's saying "me too".

"Head back up to the clouds" Hiccup says and Toothless is more than happy to do so. They head back upwards and settle just above the clouds. Hiccup puts on his new mask, and stands up on top of Toothless's back. Toothless let's out a groan like "Not again" Type of feel to it.

"Toothless I feel like we will finally not crash and fall" He tries reassuring the dragon beneath him but it does not work. Hiccup sighs and runs off of Toothless and begins falling. Hiccup hits the button to open the wings but they don't open. Hiccup has yet to really use this suit and it was made a little over a year ago. Hiccup made it with hope he could finally use it with his best friend once again.

Hiccup presses the button multiple times until it finally opens, which Hiccup gives a huge sigh of relief, as the ground was getting a little too close for comfort. he glides forward with Toothless gliding beside him. They glide in the direction of the village, with multiple people look up and see them. Hiccup closes his eyes and smiles as they continue gliding over the village.

xx

"So please tell me you have had some luck with the ladies ever since you left?" Snotlout asks, and Hookfang gives a small nod. This is the first time they had actually spent any actual time with each other since the dragons first landed. They were sitting at the same cliff from before, with the sun very slowly starting to set.

"Well at least one of us has" Snotlout says, looking down at the water below. Hookfang lays down beside him, resting his head next to Snotlout.

"I will say though, life has been pretty good to me" Snotlout knows he is saying lies out in the open, but he never was a fan of letting out any kind of emotion that wasn't of him being proud of his own achievements. But for this moment, he feels like he needs to.

"who am I kidding, it hasn't been the same since you left" Hookfang raises his head and faces Snotlout, who is still looking down at the water. "I missed you Hookfang, really have" He fights back a tear that wants to fall down his cheek.

"Even though you sometimes acted like a little shit I still missed you" Hookfang nudges Snotlout's side. Snotlout finally relents and the tear he has been holding back finally falls down. He did not like the feeling he is feeling inside himself. But for some reason it is the only feeling he is currently feeling.

"I have been lonely, and don't you EVER tell anyone I said that" Hookfang shoots a glare at him, but Snotlout shrugs it off. "Like sure, me and Hiccup got a lot closer over the years, but he has a village to run and a wife to attend to. Not to mention his kids" Snotlout stands up and starts pacing around in a circle.

"And for as beautiful as I am there isn't anybody interested in me that isn't a complete ugly mess" he throws his hands up in the air. There was a shield maiden who had a lot of interest in getting into bed with Snotlout, but he wanted nothing to do with it, since she wasn't the easiest to look at.

"The ship with Astrid said long ago, and Ruffnut wanted Fishlegs more than me for some reason.. still is weird to think about to this day" Snotlout did not take it lightly, Fishlegs being a better pick than Snotlout? That just did not sound right in his mind. It did not make sense.

"And Valka is determined to be a widow for the rest of her life, and I have no choice but to respect that, or else Hiccup and I might not be good friends anymore" Snotlout cared very deeply about the friendship he had with the Chief. Hiccup was friendly to everyone on Berk, but for one reason or another makes a effort to help Snotlout out or just spend some time with him whenever he can. He even trusted Snotlout with being the head of scouting around the island.

Hookfang gets up himself and continues looking at his old friend, who is still pacing around the clearing in a not so neat circle.

"There's just not much out there for me I guess, love wise anyway" Who would have thought that HE would be the one without a date. Hiccup made sense now since he has all this bravado and such, but Fishlegs?

At least Tuffnut is on the same boat, but he does that to himself.

"Maybe one day, I'm tired of not being able to show off at all! Every woman on this island is either married or not worth my time" Hookfang grabs a stick with his mouth and throws it at Snotlout, and manages to hit him right in the chest.

"What the hell was that for?" Snotlout says loudly at the dragon. Hookfang rolls his eyes and looks out to the open sky in front of them. Snotlout however, shakes his head.

"I couldn't leave this island, I do love my home, and there's probably not a better Chief out there, unless I was one myself" Snotlout smiles. If he was Chief he could probably get any women he wanted to, but it's not like it's a job with open vacancy for any person to stroll into. For him to become Chief, Hiccup, Astrid and Valka would all have to die. And while Snotlout wouldn't mind being a Chief, he would not want anyone having to die for it.

Snotlout turns to his dragon and hugs Hookfang's head.

"Thank you Hookfang, for listening at least" He backs up a few steps and glares,

"And if you tell anyone that I said anything about today I swear I will shove my foot so far up your ass" He threatens, and Hookfang simply rolls his eyes and lays back down..

xx

The night sky is lit up with a ton of stars and a very bright moon. Astrid very much enjoys the nice weather outside while looking up at all the stars. It is a easy way t clear the mind and just enjoy the view.

"Uh- Hi Astrid" She turns around and sees Hiccup standing beside her. She frowns and returns to looking up at the stars above their house.

"Astrid I-"

"No, you hid Stormfly from me" She protests. She felt, in some way, betrayed. Stormfly was one of the closest things to her, how could he hide something like that?

"I didn't hide anything Astrid. By the time I got back to Berk I had the meeting brought together, and you were one of the last to show up, so I didn't have the time to pull you aside and talk about this" He takes a step forward and halves the distance between them. She sighs and looks down at the ground.

"It would have taken five seconds" She retorts. He sighs and shakes his head.

"And I used those seconds talking about a threat big enough to scare the alpha of all dragons away from his own nest. That was all that was on my mind" Which was a completely true statement, and Astrid knew it. Hiccup always put protecting the village before anything. He denies to ever make the mistake of underestimating his opponent.

"Were you even going to tell me?" She looks at him and all she sees is two very green eyes looking right back at her, and a smile facing her.

"Of course I was going to, I just didn't have a moment to" She crosses her arms.

"I was right there next to you during the time Toothless was drawing in the sand" Hiccup frowns.

"And we were distracted. By the time I remembered I had to tell you, Stormfly was right there in front of us" She saw the look in his eyes, and knew he was telling the truth. She sighs and leans into him, resting her head on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry" She says into his neck. He wraps his arms around her and holds her tight. He turns his head and kisses her temple, causing her cheeks to burn, something he always seems to make happen.

"No need to apologize, it's okay" She moves her head back and looks at him, and leans in and kisses him softly. He takes one of his hands and places it on the back of her head and pushes her closer, deepening the kiss. They both pull away smiling, and she once again rests her head on him.

"Let's get inside, we have another meeting to go through in the morning" She says and he nods. She gives him one more kiss before they head back inside for the night. This meeting hopefully will go just as smooth as the one earlier

xx

**And that is a wrap! I just love writing scenes that show more details about each character. Now to answer a couple of questions I was asked, no I will never give up on this story. I am moving into my first condo/home in 2 weeks and it has been absolutely hectic, so me taking forever to post is because of my already lack of free time becoming worse. But I promise you guys this story will finish with it's ending, not just stopping halfway through. This is a 20 chapter story so we still have a lot of story left. The other question I have gotten is why isn't Tuffnut in this story, and well truthfully, I don't know where to go with him, but I will insert him at some point. Anyway I hope you guys all enjoyed this chapter, and I can't wait to see what you all think about it! Until Next time, -Kyle11055**

**Coming next week, Chapter 9- "A Master Plan"**


	9. A Master Plan

**Okay... I got some explaining to do, and I have answers to all the questions I have been asked. I haven't posted in three months, I am aware and I am sorry for such the wait. Life has hit me like a brick. I have bought my own place and moved out and everything on that. I got a puppy to go along with the new place and that takes out a huge chunk of my time that I don't really have anyway. I literally work 50 hours a week from 9-7 so that leaves me almost no time to do anything I want to. On my days off I am super busy catching up on everything. I do feel really guilty waiting this long to post again. I just started writing this again 5 hours before I work a full 14 hour day by myself, but I really want to kick my gears back on with this story. Somewhere along the line I did lose some passion of my writing, and that is something I am starting to feel again and really want to continue on with this story. I love you guys and thank you for sticking with me. This chapter may be slightly shorter than usual just so I can get it out to you's. Plus I don't want to load it with scenes here that have no meaning to the plot. **

**Enjoy the story**

Chapter 9- A Master Plan

"So your plan was to almost get us killed!?" Griselda yells as she walks right up to Grimmel. She had tried talking to him on the flight back to where he lived, but not only did he not say a single word back to her, he also made no movement at all. It was like she wasn't even there at all, and it pissed her off to know end. Usually when you need someones help you have them do something, not stand around watching you do all the work. She had not been asked to do a single thing aside from watching and making sure 'nothing goes wrong'. She wished something went wrong to the point he could die for it.

He once again ignored her as he sat down at his table and looked over his notes and maps. This infuriated her, and she threw the papers on the ground. He looked at the ground then back at her with a annoyed look on his face.

"Why force me to be here if you don't want me doing anything Grimmel?" She asks, standing on the other side of the table now. She hated being here. She hated him. She hated the situation. Why keep her here any longer. He sat there in silent, just staring at her instead with one eyebrow raised.

"Say something!" She demands, but he still just stares at her. Anger really starts building inside of her, wanting nothing more then to throw him off a cliff. She's not even worried about the dragons killing her anymore. But she does not want her brother to die. That is the only thing keeping Grimmel alive in her eyes.

"Say something you motherfucker" She slams her hands on the table. Why won't he just treat her like a person instead of a annoyance or a prisoner? If he meant what he said by "You are the only person I trust" Then why won't he trust her with anything? He sighs and stands up, still staring at her.

"What do you want me to say?" He asks in a very non threatening tone, almost like he is calm. She blinks a few times fast in confusion. She was expecting him to lash out, not be calm. He had to have something up his sleeve.

"Why do you keep me here, when you don't need me?" She asks in a calmer voice as well, mirroring his emotion.

"I am going to need you, once we set foot on Berk" He states. Finally, he is informing her about something. She still hates him for everything he became. Had he never of changed, she probably would have helped him regardless. But he is far off from what he used to be.

"What makes you think I am going to risk my life to fight your war?" She glares at him, and his once calm voice turns into a more annoyed one.

"Because, it's either you risk yours, or your brother's" He walks right up to her, within a few inches, and glares right back at her. Her hands balled up into very tight fists. She wished she could do something to him right now. Knock all his teeth out, slam him through the table. Anything.

"But why fuck up my life?! I have probably been the only person who has never done anything wrong to you. so why torture me!" Her voice gets loud, and she can see the anger in his eyes. She didn't know he had such emotion in him at all to be mad like he looked. He turns around and flips the table, and whips back around to face her once again.

"And that's why I trust you Griselda!"

"Then why bring me here against my will if you trust me so much!" She throw her arms in the air.

"Because.. I have to be sure you won't run off if I need you" His stance softens, and he takes a small step backwards.

"But you turned your back on your friends when we had a deal!" She still will never forget that. They hired him to capture the Night Fury for them, but instead he taunted them and tried taking the dragon all for himself, along with the money they had paid him. He did that to his only friends. He didn't deserve anybody's help now.

"I did what I had to do Griselda! It has been my job to kill every last Night Fury!" His voice is loud, but sounds more like pleading than it does anger. She crosses her arms and starts pacing around the room. He did not deserve anybody's help. But she was still conflicted. Because no matter what, deep deep down, she still had feelings for him, regardless of how small it felt.

"So you turned your back on us to make yourself feel better?" She says softly, arms falling down to her side. He frowns.

"Why does it matter to you?" She freezes. Why does it matter to her? Was he an idiot? Or blind?

"Because we all fucking cared about you!" A tear rolls down her eyes, the emotion built up inside her starting to leak out, "I had feelings for you. I thought maybe after everything was said an done maybe we could start something in happy retirement". Grimmel remains silent, scratching the top of his head.

"I'm sorry to ruin your dreams my friend. Like I said, we finish this mission, you can leave and never think of me again" He states, and she decides whether or not to keep this argument going, but he did not seem to understand anything she is saying, instead shruging it off like it didn't even matter to him. Like he did not care if she cared or not. It hurt, but she couldn't let that show. He held her here against her will, and has her brother here to make sure she doesn't kill him. He doesn't deserve anything aside from a foot up his ass.

"Whatever" She sighs, "What's your plan from here?"She asks in a defeated tone. She doesn't want any part of this plan of his, but what choice does she really have? As much as she used to like this man, she knows she must find a way to escape with her head safely on her shoulders. There was a reason she stayed far away from Berk. They defeated all of them soundly. Why risk their lives again to get mostly the same result.

Berk may not be as strong as they were back then, but neither were they.

Grimmel sits back down and pulls his map closer to him. he points to the side of Berk that had the cliff to it. "We will come in from here with three of our Deathgrippers. The fourth will come from the Northern side" He points towards where their Great Hall was, "We will have that Deathgripper hopefully come in silently and work his way from the Great Hall to the center of the village" She sits down next to him and looks over what he is pointing and saying.

"And what of the Chief and the Alpha?" She asks and he frowns slightly but points to the cliff area, "We should be able to grab their attention and take them on in the sky while the fourth Deathgripper comes from behind". The plan did not make her feel confident at all. It was a absolute suicide mission.

"And what if you can't beat him in the air?" Grimmel lets out a very annoyed sigh.

"I will beat him in the sky"

"But what if you can't? Then what?" He glares at her with nothing but anger in his eyes.

"Then I die trying!" He yells, and she stands up and moves to the other side of the table, taking one of the chairs from there and sitting back down.

"If you can't beat him in the air you must have a backup plan. Don't you think everything through?" She smirks slightly while saying it. She knows she is annoying him. She hopes she keeps doing it. Hopefully it will let her and her brother free.

"That's what that Deathgripper coming from the North is for. A Sneak attack I suppose you could say" He softens his glare and looks at her, sighing. "We must distract them and take their village hostage, force their hand" He says, standing up and facing the small opening that shows a wonderful view of the water outside.

"Use their emotion as a weapon?" She says, and it makes sense. Emotion is every mans downfall. Grimmel turns around with a huge smile on his face,

"Exactly! Now you're getting it. That's why we gave them the Night Fury to begin with" He hasn't looked this happy in years. Actual emotion coming out of Grimmel. If he didn't have her brother locked up here like an animal, it could have been very comforting.

"But it still brings the question of, why do you need me here? Clearly you have this all on your own" She falls in her chair. She wants to return home. Not to her crew or anything, just to her home. Maybe happily retire finally and enjoy a simple life.

Grimmel walks up to her and stares at her, right in her eyes. He looks sort of hurt. Like maybe he has some type of emotion in him. She sits back up, looking right back at him.

"Because Griselda. I.." He pauses to think of what he is going to say. He was usually very good with words or saying anything that needed to be said. But he looked very tongue tied. Like maybe he doesn't have an answer and is just trying to come up with one right on the spot. Or maybe however, he doesn't want to reveal the answer to her.

"Because I want you here, to feel the same feeling I have. The feeling of fixing a wrong" Of course. of course he would say something like that, and it pisses her off. She stands up and backs away from him while shaking her head.

"I didn't want to fix any wrong Grimmel!" She screams. "My only wrong in my life right now is you" She goes to walk to the room she has had to call her's, but before she can reach it he grabs her arm and pulls her the opposite way.

"Grimmel!" She yells but he doesn't even respond, pulling her down a hall. She tries her best to free herself from his grip, but she can't shake it off. For being old, he does have a very strong grip.

"Get the fuck off of me" She screams again, but once again he acts like she isn't even talking. He throws the doors that lead to the huge room with all the doors. In the middle is the Light Fury, chained up and inside a metal cage. Griselda continues to fight Grimmel from pulling her, but it still leads to no result. He pulls her to the door where her brother is kept and throws her down on the ground. She swings her head back up to face him, but all she sees is anger flowing out of him. Grimmel pounds the door and stares at her,

"You better have that feeling in you" He spits out, even in his anger she can see the signs of regret in this action. But she doesn't care. He can rot in hel for all she cares for anymore. He would deserve it.

"Because his life depends on it" A tear falls down her face. She wants to fight him, she really does. If she could get away with it his throat would have already been slit. But her doing that would kill both her and her brother. Another tear falls down her face, but she wipes it off and stands back up.

"Can I speak to him at least?" She asks, and it sounds more like pleading and begging than it does asking. He stares at her for a moment, clearly fighting himself internally on the answer he is going to give her. He sighs and nods,

"Make it quick" She nods and he pulls the lever down to open the door. After a few moments the door opens, revealing her brother still in chains. She runs to him and throws her arms over his shoulders.

"Oh brother!" tears start rolling down her face, "I have been worried sick about you" She squeezes him tightly and burrows her face in his shoulder. She turns around and glares at Grimmel.

"Can you at least be nice enough to remove his mouth cover so he can talk?" He rubs his forehead and sighs rather loudly, but does give her what she wants. He presses the button that loosens the mouth cover and lets it drop to the floor.

"You fucking coward!" Nathaniel yells as soon as the mouth guard comes off, trying his best to free himself from his restraints.

"You are no man! Face me without chains, without dragons!"

"This is why I didn't take his cover off the first time. I'll be right back" Grimmel says as he walks out of the room.

"Sister listen to me" Nathaniel says, and another tear falls down her face. "Do not let him do anything to you. Kill him the first moment you can get away with it"

"But... But you will die" She pleads. There was a fifth Deathgripper sleeping behind them. The dragon that would kill Nathan should anything happen. It was a smaller Deathgripper compared to the other, the youngest of the five as well.

"Griselda... that is a risk you must take" He says and after a moment Grimmel returns and picks up the mouth guard.

"Alright, times up" he says as he puts the cover back on him. Griselda runs out and falls right in front of the Light Fury, who is still sleeping. Grimmel walks out and closes the door.

"Don't take his advice dear, just play nice and you both can survive" He says, before walking out. Griselda sits there on the floor for a while, contemplating everything going on in her life. She just wants a way to end this. She doesn't want any part of anything going on here.

She stares at the white dragon in front of her. Caged, with a large mouth guard on her as well, to prevent her mouth from opening and either shooting or biting something. She was chained around her neck as well, with a large cage around her. Griselda gets up, and as she does the Light Fury's eyes shoot open. Her pupils look like slits, staring at Griselda.

"I am sorry that you have to go through this as well" She says, resting one of her hands on one of the bars. The slits turn into slightly larger ovals.

"Trust me, I want him dead too. I just hope your mate and his friend can end this for the both of us" The light fury continues to study Griselda, looking very curious. Both of her eyes look like large black balls, looking very calm at the same time. Griselda gives the dragon a smile before walking off.

00000

"So, how does it feel to have the dragons back?" Snotlout asks. Hiccup looks up from his dinner and looks back at Snotlout, who is on the other side of the table.

"Not as comforting as I imagined it to ever be" He replies back. Hiccup always had a thought of what it would be like if the dragons ever returned. It felt like a moment that would be above any other. Like seeing a family member again after years of them being away. Hiccup always wanted that day to come. He didn't think he would ever see a dragon again in his lifetime, believing peace between people and dragons would never come for generations.

But then Toothless came back, and it felt the exact opposite of what Hiccup thought it would feel like. This did not feel like a warm welcome. He felt hunted. Felt like he was threatened. He was. His feelings were right.

Having the dragons back also didn't feel permanent.

Temporary was the word he would use for it.

Snotlout frowns and takes another spoonful of his soup. Him and Hiccup had spent the last few hours together, mostly just talking and planning.

"Well what did you expect?" Snotlout asks

"Not for another war against someone who wants to kill our dragons" Hiccup pushes his bowl away and stands up.

"I was hoping for a peaceful reunion one day" He finishes and Snotlout nods.

"Well not everything goes as expected" Snotlout says and Hiccup lets out a chuckle, "yeah you can say that again" They both laugh and continue eating their soup and sipping at the mead. This was a more peaceful ending to a otherwise hectic day.

00000

"So if this mean man, er- Grimmel? Comes by again, will dad be able to kick his butt?" Jack asks and Astrid laughs softly and rubs her hair through his hair as he sits on her lap. They have both been staring at the night sky lit up by many stars. The nights were always beautiful around here.

"Your father is very heroic when he has to be" She responds. Jack lets out a giggle.

"What?" Astrid asks as she tilts her head slightly.

"If dad's heroic, then that means he can kick your butt too!" Jack exclaims, and Astrid lets out a playful scoff.

"I think even he would admit that I would beat him any day" She retorts but Jack shakes his head.

"Nu-uh! In all stories the hero always wins!" He jumps out of her lap and faces her, pointing his finger directly at her, "So that means he would be the victor in the end"

"Are you proud of your theory?" She asks and he nods. She sighs and shakes her head, ultimately giving up on this argument. Arguing with Jack isn't going to get her anywhere, because apparently she is a villain to him now.

A brief silence is completely ended by footsteps that sound like someone is running. The house door bursts open and Brenda pops out.

"I know I'm late, but I heard something about butt kicking and stuff" Brenda says while taking a deep breath.

"And why did you come out so late?" Jack asks

"I was eating some food" She responds while shrugging her shoulders. At least she has priorities. "So... Who is getting their butt whooped?" Astrid shoots a glare at her

"You if you keep talking about it miss" Astrid says and Brenda shoots a glare. Astrid happily returns it to her.

"Oh you guys are the masters of glaring at people" They all whip their heads around and see Hiccup approaching them.

"You're home late aren't you?" Astrid says, shooting a light glare at him.

"Me and Snotlout got caught up in old stories and such. Plus their was plenty of mead, and we don't wanna waste that good stuff" He says, giving everyone a cheeky wave before heading inside the house.

"We should all head in too, let's go" Astrid says while gesturing to the door.

00000

"Hey, so I had a idea that would be good for the both of us" Fishlegs says, and Ruffnut gestures for him to continue as she moves one of her pillows to give her a better angle to lay down. She starts rubbing her stomach gently. Ruffnut never thought she would ever be a mother, and she REALLY never thought she would ever enjoy it. But the thought of having a child with Fishlegs has brought nothing but happiness and anticipation.

"So since we haven't really dealt with kids much, and we also haven't really done anything interesting as of late" He continues and earns a slight glare, but that glare fades. They have been homebodies the past few nights, not really doing anything to note.

"And you know how much we have been wanting to get our boat out for a little fishing trip getaway for a day or so" He says,

"Okay please just get on with your idea for Thors sake" She says loudly, and he nods. She has been moody for the past month or so. Pregnancy is really getting to her.

"Why don't we ask Hiccup to take his kids on a trip for a bit, I'm sure he could use some time with Astrid alone anyway" He gives a wink and she rolls her eyes.

"The last image I need in my head Fish is Astrid and the Chief porking since we took their kids for the day" They both laugh.

"If we are being honest, with this whole Grimmel thing floating around, Hiccup could use a good fucking" He says and they both laugh once again.

"But in all seriousness, we should take Brenda and Jack fishing, enjoy the ocean for a bit. Sort of learn to deal with kids" She nods in agreement and pats the piece of bed next to her. He sits down and she leans in for a kiss.

"All this talk about sex is starting to make me want some too" She smirks and bites his lip.

The boat trip will be fun tomorrow should Hiccup be okay with it, But she knows she is going to have some fun tonight.

00000

**Not the best chapter I ever made. In fact, half of it was made back in March, so I did my best to finish it before going to sleep for work tomorrow. I will continue to write as much as I can with the time I have, and No it will not be 3 months between each chapter. More realistic however is 1-3 chapter a month. I want to write for you guys and I will the best I can. I just hope you all forgive me for making you all wait for so long. Thank you all for being such amazing fans and people. Next chapter is going to be fun as hell to write, as it is going to have some action in it wink wink ;). **

**thanks again for the support! Time for me to get some sleep before work lol.**

**Coming next week **

**Chapter 10 "Problems in the Big Blue"**


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